Dive Brief:

• When it comes to learning, a majority of millennials want their professional development process to move at a quicker pace, Chief Learning Officer reports. 

• A 2016 survey from Express Employment Professionals showed that 40% of young workers will change jobs because they are not learning and advancing fast enough.

• The key for L&D leaders, according to Chief Learning Officer, is to tap into the millennials' drive to be in charge of their own career destiny. To that end, always-on resources should be made available in order to allow younger employees to further their careers through self-directed learning.

Dive Insight:

Millennials have certainly changed the landscape of modern corporate learning. Smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices stream information directly to them anytime, anywhere, and younger employees generally prefer to learn new skills at work this way, too.

More to the point, on-demand learning resources enable millennials to climb the career ladder fast without neglecting oft-overlooked soft skills. This is also not the first time self-directed learning has shown potential for younger members of the workforce; one California school has successfully allowed students to design their own learning experiences with complete control over how they and their peers learn.

The article also points out the use of learning data, which can be tapped into as a source of direction when designing and delivering corporate learning. Think of this data as a map that employees naturally create as they choose the learning content that they want and need.

Putting the employee experience first can be rewarding for all ; CLOs will need to continue strategizing around the transformations millennials and future generations will make to career development.