For our upcoming project on lifelong learning, Anna Van Renen spoke with Caroline Waters, who headed up People Networks and People & Policy at BT Internet for a number of years. I wanted to understand more about how her work and programmes at the company supported continuous education and development for employees.

BT Group is a large, multinational telecommunications company with tens of thousands of employees. Their approach to HR facilitated upskilling and reskilling of current employees to create a culture of learning.

One of the most important aspects of BT’s learning and development programmes was the focus on the individual. This wasn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to learning. Regular one-on-ones between employees and managers meant that each employee’s aspirations and goals were listened to and focused upon. Promotions and upskilling opportunities could then be matched to employees who had expressed interest in specific fields or topics. Another important part of these one-on-ones was understanding the individual’s definition of success. What did they want to achieve? What did success mean to them personally? This wasn’t just in the context of work, but any other aspect of life that was important to them. Was being a good employee the most important thing to them? Or was it being a good friend or a good parent? The philosophy was that well-rounded, happy, healthy individuals are better employees.

And it worked. These one-on-ones where managers could understand not only their employees’ career goals but also personal goals and values, meant that people were offered the best training opportunities for themselves. BT’s in-house skills academy regularly had internal employees engaging in learning and upskilling. They weren’t interested in finding the best employees. They were interested in helping their employees become the best. Helping their employees become the best versions of themselves in and outside of the workplace meant BT facilitated many internal promotions. In fact, there was a point in time where 60% of their board members had been ex-apprentices. Caroline said, “The magic isn’t having best people. The magic is having people who can connect together, create ideas together, develop things and produce things together, and work well together.”

BT’s example shows us that a well-rounded approach is more beneficial to both our professional and personal lives. Happy, engaged people will make for better employees.

So, perhaps the key to lifelong learning is not simply, ‘will this get me a better job?’. Too often, lifelong learning is seen as a tool to improve employment opportunities, a tool to keep older employees ‘relevant’, a tool for professional development. What if we stopped thinking about it in the context of work altogether? Perhaps the key to lifelong learning is just ‘will this make me a better person?’. When we focus on lifelong learning for personal development, we open ourselves up to a world of possibilities. We can learn new skills, explore new interests, and challenge ourselves to grow. Learning to improve our lives in terms of satisfaction, happiness and health is far more fruitful than simply learning to get a job, and offers development in every aspect, including work.