Trends in Education

Continuous Learning and Personalization

The rapid pace of technological progress, longer average work spans, and competition for a shrinking number of jobs are pushing people to "reinvent" themselves more frequently in new professions and roles.

This has created a demand for continuous learning: "constant, voluntary, and internally motivated." To these definitions, we must now add "personalized." This concept encompasses two ideas: a narrower one, which involves enhancing skills within a chosen field, and a broader one, which aims at fully realizing a person's potential. It includes both formal and informal, as well as self-directed education, blurring the lines between them and shifting the focus to a continuous experience of engagement with the world and brands.

Brand Research Results

The growing demand for various learning formats is leading to the formation of a massive commercial industry. Today, education is one of the least capitalized markets, but it is expected to grow nearly fourfold by 2030. A significant driver has been the development of online education, closely tied to the concept of lifelong learning. In 2017, the average age of online course consumers was 33 years. The global online education market, which was valued at $188 billion in 2020, could reach $319 billion by 2025. The corporate segment is one of the fastest-growing parts of the market, with revenue expected to reach around $74 billion in 2022, $30 billion more than in 2018. The most popular fields within this segment in 2016 were business and management, natural and social sciences. Schools and universities are increasingly focusing on their branding to compete with one another, developing distinctive brand identities that effectively differentiate them from competitors.

Strong Employer Brands

A defining characteristic of this generation of learners is their desire to start their careers as early as possible, and it is from this perspective that they approach education.

At the same time, online recruiting allows for filtering resumes based on professional skills, highlighting the importance of practical abilities, especially at the early stages of a career. Having well-known brands as employers on a resume makes it easier to find new jobs and internships.

These factors have led to the emergence of "Last-mile training" programs—intensive courses offering specific practical skills tailored to current trends. Such courses are increasingly replacing traditional colleges, especially as they are often organized by future employers.

At Electric Brand Consultants, we have experience working with online schools, public universities, and NGOs, for whom we offer branding solutions, brand positioning development, and brand platform creation.