NEWS AND VIEWS

Explore insights, conversations and resources from the doers and thinkers
who are bringing a learning society into existence.

WHO WILL TRAIN THE ALREADY EDUCATED?

How Dual-Speed Universities Can Sustain the College-Educated Workforce

REPORT

As working lives extend and skills are shifting, UC San Diego’s John Skrentny and Mary Walshok argue the solution to upskilling already lives inside research universities—as extension and continuing education programs they are calling “career sustainers.”

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INSIGHTS

Learning Throughout The Life Course: In Dialogue with Anne Trumbore

Anne Trumbore is Chief Digital Learning Officer at the Sands Institute for Lifelong Learning at The Darden School, University of Virginia, where she is responsible for creating a strategy to expand access to world-class education and advance Darden’s mission of providing transformational learning experiences to learners globally. Drawing on experience establishing and leading Wharton Online and early-stage roles at Coursera, NovoEd, and Stanford’s Online High School, Anne has helped pioneer new forms of student-centered online education. She is the author of The Teacher in the Machine: A Human History of Education Technology (Princeton University Press, 2025) and was a 2025 Stanford Futures Fellow.

THE FUTURE IS NOW

America’s Human Resources and Talent Leads on AI and Learning at Work

REPORT

For the last 50 years, employers have increasingly relied on hiring external talent rather than developing workers internally. The explosion of AI and its impact on work is upending this approach — along with traditional assumptions about learning and talent development.

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BUILDING A LEARNING SOCIETY

REPORT

How do Americans flourish as technology advances?
Learning Society’s vision calls for lifelong learning opportunities accessible to all.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

People have always been the backbone of the American economy. Yet as technology and machines — unencumbered by pesky mortal frailty and human agency — become more advanced, many are beginning to wonder: what will happen to us? How will people flourish in the next decade and beyond?

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EDUCATION AND LEARNING FOR LONGER LIVES: BUILDING A NATIONAL VISION FOR HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT AND SHARED PROSPERITY

the document that launched the Futures Project on Education and Learning for Longer Lives in Fall 2024 — and seeded the core ideas of Learning Society

contributors

Antje Gardyan, Gloria Mwase, Matt Sigelman, Anne Trumbore, & Mitchell Stevens

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WHAT WE’RE READING

Thought-provoking articles, reports, and ideas shaping our work right now.

You Might Be a Late Bloomer

The life secrets of those who flailed early but succeeded by old age...

The Microcredential Maze: Why The U.S. Is Falling Behind

With hundreds of millions of online credentials issued every year, the meteoric growth is vastly outpacing the growth of conventional degrees and course credits, and offers a potentially existential threat to some forms of traditional higher education.

The New Students at This Liberal Arts College Are in Their 80s

Baby boomers and the silent generation are attending classes at Goucher, part of a partnership meant to offset a steep decline in enrollment.

Why We Need to Pivot from a “Schooled Society” to a “Learning Society”

Learning Lab Director Lark Park, who has known Mitchell Stevens for more than a decade, caught up with him after the launch of the Learning Society on Stanford’s campus in February 2026. This conversation is about why he launched it, a brief history of the policies and forces that have shaped education and workforce, and what the revolution or evolution of a Learning Society might look like in the future.

The Future of Higher Education: IDEAS MATTER Podcast with Mitchell Stevens

As AI ushers in a fourth industrial revolution and universities face the onset of the demographic cliff, what does the future of higher education look like? In this episode of Ideas Matter, WashU’s Sandro Galea, dean of the Bursky School of Public Health, and Stanford University’s Mitchell Stevens discuss how higher education reached this crossroads and what kinds of institutional changes need to take place in order to create a more equitable society.

First-Time Adult Enrollment Dropped This Fall. Should Colleges Be Worried?

Nearly 16 percent fewer adults started college for the first time this fall compared to the previous year. Some say the change represents rightsizing after an enrollment boom, but others say it’s a reversal worth keeping an eye on.