This week is learning at work week sponsored by campaign for learning and this years theme is "Made For Learning". It focuses on our human capacity to learn, how we can be great lifelong learners and the importance of connection and community for empowered people and dynamic organisations. The focus generally is about learning in the workplace but learning goes so far beyond that and often our life lessons can be applied to work and vice versa.
Learning doesn't stop when we leave school, college or university. We learn in so many ways every day. In the last year especially everyone has learnt so many things they never would have imagined. Some have learnt how to teach, some have taken up new hobbies, learnt an instrument, learnt to bake or cook, we have learnt more about our neighbours, communities and surroundings. Not many of us had heard of Zoom, furlough, bubbles(other than the ones that come in little bottles or go in your bath), social distancing or even coronavirus. We have an infinite capacity to learn but it is easy to forget when we are older that we can and should continue to learn. Sometimes we don't even realise how much we have learnt until we are challenged to look back and answer that question.
If we’re learners, we’re more likely to have the confidence to try new things, to stretch ourselves and to explore the limits of our creativity. We can also pass that knowledge on to others, be it family, friends or colleagues which can create new bonds. Some people don't respond well to formal classes so it is great that there are many ways to acquire the knowledge we need.
We are lucky at MPI that we have a very supportive board of directors and managers that always support our personal development. In varieties of ways they ensure all doors are open to us and they invest with our contractors too in apprenticeships and trainee schemes. We never have to be afraid to approach our managers about courses we feel would benefit us and the company as a whole and often our forward-thinking managers will approach us about the next phase in our personal development. For those that are uncomfortable in a group classroom based approach one on one support, development and advise is always available.
A phrase we use a lot here at MPI is "every day's a school day" because in the industries we work in are always changing and lets face recruitment itself has undergone many changes itself in the last few years. But as the saying goes "knowledge is power" so its great that we have the ability, capacity and opportunity to keep learning. Learning is exciting, learning is powerful, and learning at work is maybe only a small part of our learning but we should still embrace the opportunities that this can bring us.