Today’s post comes courtesy of  Brendan O’Sullivan, ThirdForce Chief Executive Officer

I came across a great article in the Wall Street Journal recently, which said that Portugal’s low level of education across the population will hamper economic recovery and may accelerate the need for a bailout. “Portugal is the poorest country in Western Europe. It is also the least educated, and that has emerged as a painful liability in its gathering economic crisis”. The article goes on to say “Just 28% of the Portuguese population between 25 and 64 has completed high school. The figure is 85% in Germany, 91% in the Czech Republic and 89% in the U.S”. Wow! The 25-64 group is the engine room of the economy and without up-skilling it is hard to see how Portugal can pull its economy out of trouble.

To me, this highlights the need to continue the use of technology-based learning to reach adults in all countries who have left the education system - but still aspire to learn new skills to prosper within todays modern economy.

I believe that e-learning and various informal learning interventions can help reduce the associated costs of training and helps promote learner empowerment in the context of personalised learning; giving individual learners the freedom to learn at their own pace and at their desired time- an experience that meets their personal, social and educational needs and which, ultimately, helps them to achieve their ambitions. What do you think?