The transformation of work constantly creates new opportunities, challenging us to develop new things. What sets this period apart is the continuity and pace of change, as well as the speed of technological development. Together, these affect how we work, our tools and processes, and even team structures and organization.
In the future, people will have an increasing variety of jobs and roles. Income will come from an increasing range of sources, such as paid employment, entrepreneurship, and work in associations. Yet some societal structures still reflect the idea that we all first complete our basic education, perhaps pursue further education, then go to work and eventually retire.
Study leave, or simply time off?
The abolition of the adult education allowance and job alternation leave has sparked considerable discussion recently.
Study leave has long been an essential way for working people to take time off in a situation where opportunities for leave are generally rather limited. The adult education allowance, in turn, has made that leave possible for at least some people.
Beyond the political arguments, however, the debate around abolishing the adult education allowance exposes a major structural gap: we do not have enough flexibility or solutions for the needs for time off that working life brings.
People seek study leave, for example,
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To learn new things
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To build the next steps on their career path
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To recover from the pressures of juggling work and family, or from a difficult life situation
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To look after young children at home for longer
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To help loved ones when they need us, and so on.
Could it be, then, that we need not only study leave and financial support to make it possible, but also types of leave that allow us to respond to these real-life needs?
Is a period away from working life devoted solely to study always the answer to needs like these? Or should we develop specific solutions to the concerns raised in these discussions, so that we can cope and remain in work? To some extent, all these needs have been addressed through the statutory forms of leave available to us in different life situations, such as study leave and childcare leave. None of these allows time off unless it is tied to childcare or studying.
I founded my own company by combining childcare leave and study leave. It would have been considerably easier without children to look after at home or having to collect studies I did not need during that period, simply to meet the criteria for leave and the adult education allowance and get the time off work I needed.
In Sweden, for example, employees can take leave to start a business and try entrepreneurship with a safety net.
Working life needs flexibility
Correct me if I am wrong, but my feeling is that working life does not offer enough flexibility to accommodate and address our needs, needs whose emergence this pace and change have also accelerated as we make decisions about our working lives.
How many workplaces, for example, provide enough time for learning / leave and permission for secondary employment to enable working elsewhere / opportunities to discuss career roadblocks with one's manager / opportunities to work reduced hours or take a break from work simply to rest or pursue something personally meaningful?
We urgently need quick, practical learning opportunities for changing fields and developing professional skills. Our structures for organizing and managing work, and our capacity to renew learning, are lagging far behind. Nor does our education system, as it stands, respond to the transformation of work. We need new solutions at individual, organizational, and societal levels.
As I see it, the adult education allowance has now become a sponsor for career roadblocks, burnout, caring for relatives and children, and learning new things.
Not just an individual responsibility
Society and organizations have been let off more lightly when it comes to addressing the root causes of these needs:
How can we support learning in workplaces?
How can we support a career path that reflects each employee's own career landscape?
How can we ensure flexibility is available when an employee needs it?
To put it bluntly, could we not assume that employers will address employees' needs for new skills, support them in pursuing a career path that suits them, and make work flexible when there is a justified need?
Change challenges employers as well as employees, inevitably confronting both with something new: how to bring their interests together successfully. Of course, work is not all about everyone being comfortable and feeling good about everything all the time. Yet I have personally witnessed a great many situations where a little could have achieved so much more: all it would have taken was a little flexibility.
Important elements of future work identity include the ability to see opportunities, the courage to seize them, and the ability to anticipate the future and work out which skills will be useful and how to acquire them. Changes in work, tasks, and business in the digital economy also require renewed job descriptions, management practices, and organizational structures. The transformation of work requires responsibility from businesses and responsiveness from legislators. Both have a duty to make work increasingly accessible and meaningful for people.
A final thought
The philosophy of continuous learning will not be destroyed by the abolition of the adult education allowance. Continuous learning is self-directed and flexible, and does not depend on a period of study leave separate from working life. We still have countless ways to learn and study, but
rather few means of making a career change, maintaining our ability to learn and our well-being, and developing our professional capabilities on our own terms.
As the adult education allowance and job alternation leave come to an end, it is essential to ensure that people in employment can also take the breaks and find the space for something new that they need during their working lives.
- Elina Söderlund
Kuulas& Co Oy. We are a design agency specializing in organizational career and learning questions. We help our clients create impactful learning experiences and working-life solutions that reflect who they are.
The author, Elina Söderlund, views the world and the formation of experiences through a pedagogical and social-psychological mindset combined with design thinking. Elina has spent nearly 20 years working in education and employment services across the private and municipal sectors, foundations, and associations. Her passion is bringing people together to work and learn around meaningful issues.
Sources
Jarenko, K. 2019. A model in which societal structures genuinely support lifelong learning. Filosofian akatemia. Available at: https://filosofianakatemia.fi/blogi/malli-jossa-yhteiskunnalliset-rakenteet-oikeasti-tukevat-elinikaista-oppimista
Sulsström, H. & Valkama, H. 2020. Yle. More and more people are forced into entrepreneurship, and emotions run high in an increasing number of workplaces — these are the working-life trends for 2020. Available at: https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11196165
Toiminen, M. 2017. Glimpses of the future. Sitra (ISBN 978-952-93-8973-5 (PDF)) Available at:
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