This is a page of the first FREE section of MWL 2023
<< INTRODUCTION TO MODERN WORKPLACE LEARNING 2023
Here are the latest survey results which show how much people learn (at work) from each of the 4 D’s of Learning: DISCOVERY, DOING (the day job), DISCOURSE and DIDACTICS. The average percentages are shown on the graphic below.
This table below provides a breakdown by age.
| % of respondents | 7% | 27% | 29% | 29% | 9% | |
| age | <30 | 30-39 | 40-49 | 50-59 | >60 | |
| DISCOVERY (finding things out for oneself) |
33% | 29% | 30% | 33% | 36% | 40% |
| DOING (the day job) (daily work experiences) |
32% | 34% | 33% | 32% | 30% | 23% |
| DISCOURSE (interacting with others) |
21% | 20% | 22% | 21% | 20% | 18% |
| DIDACTICS (being trained or taught) |
14% | 17% | 15% | 14% | 14% | 19% |
A few points to be made here:
ONE – Clearly, everyone learns in different ways at different times, but overall there does seem to be a pattern emerging that shows that learning at work mostly takes place through DISCOVERY and DOING (the day job). However, we can see a few interesting differences
- the youngest employees consider they learn slightly more (than the average) from DOING the day job than DISCOVERY whilst this pattern gradually reverses as employees get older
- the youngest and the oldest employees consider they learn slightly more than the average from DIDACTICS
In terms of nationalities (see table below)
- those in the USA consider they learn more from DIDACTICS than the average
- those in Australia and New Zealand and Brazil believe they learn ,more from DISCOVERY than the average
| Percentage of responses | 18% | 18% | 11% | 8% | 8% | 4% | 4% | 3% |
| UK | USA | AUS&NZ | CAN | GER | BENELUX | INDIA | BRAZ | |
| DISCOVERY (33%) | 32% | 31% | 36% | 31% | 30% | 32% | 30% | 36% |
| DOING (32%) | 34% | 31% | 32% | 34% | 33% | 30% | 33% | 32% |
| DISCOURSE (21%) | 22% | 20% | 20% | 20% | 23% | 23% | 20% | 20% |
| DIDACTICS (14%) | 12% | 18% | 12% | 15% | 14% | 16% | 16% | 12% |
TWO – Essentially 86% of what people learn comes from non-training activities – and yet it is the 14% where L&D’s focus lies.
THREE – Workplace Learning is no longer about learning solely from internal courses, resources and activities, people learn both from inside the the organisation and outside the organisation.
Let’s dig down into this a bit deeper, and consider how frequently we learn from each of the 4 D’s of Learning.
Next: How frequently do you learn from the 4 D’s of Learning?
Last updated: October 7, 2022 at 18:30 pm