What is lifelong learning ? How does the adult learn ?
The secret of success is to get ready for the opportunity when it comes.
Many man and organisation do not realise this simple concept and have failed to grasp the business while the opportunity come because of man not ready for it.
There are also occurence when man grasp the opportunity with unreadiness lead to disaster or crisis in the organisation. Similarly the lifelong learning is to get ready or a continuing improvement of a person interllectual or professional knowledge neccessary while recognising the opportunity.
Adult learning are very different from the traditional classroom training or education. Very often, after an executive attended a training class. The boss asked "How was the training, what did you learn ? " Normally, what come to the mind of an executive is a mish-mash of personal impressions and of half-recalled and disjointed flashes of insights from the classes. The rest of them still in the notes.
Hence, Adult learn only abstract of an ideas. Another charasteristic of an adult or executive before learning is pre-conceived ideas, fixed perceptions, biases attitudes which have been encrusted them by their life and professional experiences.
Therefore, adult mind are subjected to a continuous bombardment of information and ideas. In the self-protection, we screen out most of them and tuck others away for possible later use. That "later use" is the process of adult learning, for nothing has been fully learned until it is applied by the learner.
We should continue to learn and grow in and out of school, in every possible circumstance, and at every stage of our lives.