A LEADING LEARNING EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

Unlock Growth
Strategies and Frameworks for Your Learning Business

• Understand the "Why" of Growth: Avoid the pitfalls of "growth for growth's sake" by balancing three key reasons for growth.
• Four Approaches to Growth: Learn the two factors that drive four growth approaches - and the related risks.
• Two Growth Frameworks: Leverage two time-tested, strategic frameworks to guide smart growth.

We're grateful to BenchPrep for sponsoring this executive briefing so that we can make it available to Leading Learning subscribers at no charge.

We encourage you to find out more about how BenchPrep can help you grow your continuing education, professional development, and exam prep business.

From the Introduction

It’s difficult to estimate with precision the size of the lifelong learning market. That’s due, in large part, to the limited and inconsistent definitions of “lifelong learning,” “adult learning,” “continuing education,” and “professional development” applied by market analysts.

It’s easy, however, to find indicators that the lifelong market is both large and growing, globally and in the United States.

According to one source, the global continuing education market was worth US$33.6 billion in 2022 and is anticipated to reach US$58 billion by 2030, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately (and impressively) 20 percent. Another estimate values the U.S. continuing education market alone at US$93.3 billion by 2028.

Expanding the lens from continuing to lifelong education, another source projects the size of the global lifelong education market to reach US$784 billion by 2030. And that astounding figure doesn’t take into account the global meetings market, which was has been estimated at US$1.2 trillion, despite the fact that nearly every meeting contained in that estimate is a source of learning, whether formal or informal, for the attendees.

Perhaps by necessity, analysts tend to focus on products and services that are well defined and on parts of the lifelong learning market that are easily measurable. The sources just cited rely on data from companies and institutions that are clearly in the education and training space. But there are many more organizations serving adult lifelong learners than those numbers take into account.

Take as a prime example the burgeoning industry of edupreneurs—people who are part of the broader creator economy and generate significant revenue through blogging, livestreaming, online courses, membership sites, and other offerings aimed at monetizing their expertise and helping their followers and customers learn.

In 2016, the Pew Research Center reported that 73 percent of adults in the U.S. consider themselves lifelong learners, and 74 percent of adults had participated during the year prior to the survey in at least one activity (such as taking a course or attending a conference) to advance their knowledge about something that personally interests them. Additionally, 63 percent of survey respondents who were working (or 36 percent of all adults surveyed) had taken a course or gotten additional training in the prior year to improve their job skills or knowledge connected to career advancement.

In short, when we talk about the lifelong learning market, we’re talking about lots of money and lots of people. There are many beneficiaries: the learners themselves, their families, those who receive the learners’ services, employers, governments, and, of course, learning businesses. Organizations creating and delivering continuing education, professional development, exam prep, and other kinds of lifelong learning can profit from this clear opportunity for growth while providing value to learners and other stakeholders.

To learn more about why and how to lead the growth of your learning business, download the briefing today!