Career development
What do we know about continuing education?
When it comes to skills development, one of the major challenges today is to learn how to manage knowledge flows, rather than a stock of knowledge doomed to become obsolete. Learning must be continuous. Freshly-acquired knowledge is sometimes already obsolete before it is even used for the first time, and there is sometimes no choice but to mobilize skills before they are fully refined. Meta-competence, understood as the ability to assess the stage of development of one's skills and the need to develop them further, as well as the ability to learn how to learn, are central.
In this context, lifelong learning is a cornerstone of the link between competence, employability, career and talent management. An indispensable component for both the individual and the organization, it helps to ensure both organizational performance and individual development. From the company's point of view, it plays a favorable role in enhancing its attractiveness as an employer. As a genuine lever for value creation, continuing training is part of a human resources management approach aligned with organizational strategy. On the one hand, employees, encouraged to shape a career path in line with their personal aspirations by the context of uncertainty and constant reinvention of work and employment, understand and assume responsibility for their own fulfillment. They become actors in their own development, and seek to personalize their learning according to the direction they intend to take their career. On the other hand, organizations need more than ever to be able to capitalize on their employees' skills to generate value.
According to the 2020 Swiss edition[1] of PWC's CEO Survey, 69% of executives express concern about the skills shortage. With specific regard to the French-speaking part of Switzerland and its need to rely on a high level of expertise, the Fondation Genève Place Financière's 2023-2024 economic survey[2 ] underlines the crucial importance of access to qualified specialists. This shows just how strategic continuing education is, and how important it is for individuals and organizations alike. This is confirmed by a recent publication from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office[3], dated January 23 this year: 49% of working people in Switzerland aged between 25 and 64 in 2021 will have taken part in continuing education. In 93% of cases, this was with the support of their employer, whether in terms of time allocated during working hours or funding.
With this background in mind, what do we know about the reasons why so many professionals choose to enroll in the various continuing education courses? Beyond the commonplaces conveyed by discourses on continuing education and statistical data, what do we really know about these men and women, and what is their experience as learners?
More aware than ever of the challenges of individual and organizational development - as demonstrated, for example, by the recent partnership with the Geneva School of Management (HEG-Geneva) to offer a center of expertise in the field of continuing banking education - ISFB regularly assists a large number of employees in developing their skills and careers. At the start of 2024, ISFB decided to take part in a doctoral research project developed by the Learning and Competencies at Work, in Training and in Organizations (ACT'FOR) team at the University of Geneva's Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, in an attempt to shed light on the motivational motivations behind these singular career paths.
This research aims to investigate the profile and learning experience of adults enrolled in continuing education in the canton of Geneva. More specifically, it aims to examine the motivations (needs, goals, reasons for entering training) and emotions of adults taking part in continuing education.
By involving the participants of its training courses in this way, ISFB plays an active role in the production of knowledge in the field of continuing education, and strengthens the practical, theoretical and methodological foundations of its interventions and services. When the results are published by the University of Geneva, ISFB will have a summary of the research at its disposal, which will be communicated to its members at an event. This will be another opportunity for ISFB to fulfil its mission of providing support and advice to the banking and finance community in French-speaking Switzerland.
[1 ] https://www.pwc.ch/fr/insights/ceo-survey-2020.html
[2] https://www.geneve-finance.ch/fr-ch/news/2023-10-12-enquete-conjoncturelle-2023-2024
[3] https://www.bfs.admin.ch/news/fr/2024-0176
Strategic Business Area 3
Career development
In addition to its range of technical and managerial training courses, the ISFB offers its member banks' human resources departments a range of guidance and career management services.