This blog explores facets of lifelong learning in a practical and pragmatic sense, applied to a multitude of contexts but mainly in an organisational learning setting.Lifelong learning is at the core of all of our lives and is something that we do either formally, where conscious efforts are made to learn, or informally.Informal learning represents the bulk of all learning, almost 90% of all learning is undertaken informally, and this ratio is gradually increasing due to the advent of web 2.0 tools, the Internet and social networking, which, almost by accident produce learning.There is also another facet of learning that enlarges the scope of both informal and formal learning, which is what I call seredipitous learning, or learning by accident.Serendipitous learning is the learning which results from engaging in learning events but which produces unintentional learning as a bonus which may be unconnected from what was set out to do at the outsetOf course, there are always going to be difficulties in measuring the extent and the robustness of learning, mainly because most formal learning events rely on quantitative metrics and largely disregard the qualitative elements.The true spirit of lifelong learning encompasses both quantitative and qualitative factors and views learning as an holistic process which places the learner at the centre of learning events.There are four basic steps in lifelong learning:1. Plan what is going to be learnt, how it is going to be learnt, why it is going to be learnt, when and where it is going to be learnt.2. Carry-out that what was set out in the planning stage.3. Reflect – Metacognition, or thinking about one’s own thinking and the learning process4. Experiment – Try things out, experiment and adjust.Carl Rogers said that the only skill that will be of value in the 21st century is the capacity to learn and to change through life in order to adapt to the meteoric changes in technology and in the workplace.On this blog we welcome contribution from guest bloggers within the overall theme of Lifelong learning, soft skills and coaching – we also welcome comments from our readers in order that we can, in turn question our own learning.Among the subjects that we will be exploring are  : Coaching, Personal Development, Business Learning etc.

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