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“When the pandemic hit, I was confined at home and found myself diving into online exploration,” said Livingston, 61. She discovered GetSetUp, an interactive website that delivers virtual education to older adults. Even former chief executives like Jeff Mihm, a Miami resident who led Noven Pharmaceuticals, sometimes need a new life direction.

After resigning from his corporate post, Mihm, 55, decided to go back to school — virtually, because of the pandemic — and enrolled in the University of Texas’s Tower Fellows program in September. “I have a love of learning, and it was an opportunity to step back, study and explore,” he said. The internet has empowered adult learners by providing new online tools to ramp up education and training. “The need for workers to keep pace with fast-moving economic, cultural and technological changes, combined with longer careers, will add up to great swaths of adults who need to learn more than generations past — and faster than ever,” said Luke Yoquinto, a research associate at the M.I.T. AgeLab and co-author of “Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn.”

By 2034, the number of adults age 65 and older will outnumber those under the age of 18, according to the Census Bureau. “That growth of older age demographics will translate to new demand for enrichment in the form of digital education,” Yoquinto said. “I would say that, for both good and ill, older demographics are going to serve as a proving ground for learning technologies in the coming years.”

Adult education, however, is “the Wild West” of education technology, according to Yoquinto. There are many outlets experimenting with ways to get a handle on the online adult education marketplace, including community colleges and universities, for-profit learning platforms, workshop providers and non-profit organizations.

The new platforms are also opening doors to more adults. “There are already tons of people who, once upon a time, by dint of age or circumstance, wouldn’t traditionally have gotten the chance to partake in education, but can now sign up for free online courses,” Yoquinto said. Participants can choose a class here and there, without strapping on a backpack and heading to campus or signing up for expensive degree programs. Virtual learning has become “the great equalizer,” said Gene O’Neill, the chief executive of the North American Veterinary Community, which provides continuing education for veterinarians around the world. “Because of virtual learning, veterinary professionals everywhere, even in remote, undeveloped countries, can learn from the world’s most renowned leaders and virtually participate in conferences,” he said. “This puts learning on an equal platform for everyone regardless of geography, income or time constraints.”

“The nature of work is changing,” said Neil Dsouza, GetSetUp’s chief executive and co-founder. “The traditional way of designing training and reskilling is a long, drawn-out program where you get a certificate or a degree. By the time you get that certificate, the skill is already outdated. We’re changing that model.”

Kerry Hannon is a journalist with NYT

The New York Times