The Lifelong Learning Imperative (LLI) Workshop

在当今的全球知识经济中，组织和工作人员正在应对知识创造的日益加快，特别是在科学和工程领域。这种指数增长正在逐渐减少S E学位的“半衰期”值的长度。 为了应对这一具有挑战性的环境，发达国家和发展中世界都在努力提高和保持其劳动力的技术能力和准备状态。美国在高等教育方面从本科到博士后水平进行了大量投资。 但是，一旦进入劳动力市场，科学家和工程师学习经验的机会就会减少，而这些经验将使他们保持在各自领域的知识前沿。 此外，随着时间的推移，这些机会可能会减少，因为为单一雇主工作的时间缩短，许多组织对雇员继续教育投资的意愿随之减少。 这种情况的后果是将维持人力资本的负担转移到工人个人身上。 虽然美国国家科学院、竞争力理事会和其他智囊团的许多研究都对美国有必要为在职专业人员投资终身学习机会发表了评论，但自1985年美国国家科学院关于继续教育的报告发表以来，还没有对这一主题进行过深入研究。 在过去的23年里，全球经济发生了巨大的变化。 该项目的目的是开始认真评估在职专业科学家和工程师终身学习的现行做法。 特别是，它将探讨某些经济部门或地理区域可能尚未满足的需求。 我们国家的技术优势得益于产业、大学和政府的合作，确定了政府支持的基础和应用研究的需求，以及高等教育的投资，特别是科学家和工程师的教育。 该项目正在探讨增加终身学习投资的必要性和价值。 终身学习的必要性（LLI）研讨会是第一步。 它将综合从企业工作、学术界和政府的终身学习思想领袖的深入访谈中收集的信息。这些知识对于制定一个框架至关重要，该框架使我们的国家能够维持智力资本，从而保持其科学和工程劳动力的竞争力。

In today's global knowledge-based economy, organizations and workers are coping with an ever-increasing pace of knowledge creation, particularly in the sciences and engineering. This exponential growth is gradually reducing the length of the "half-life" value of S&E degrees. In response to this challenging environment, both developed nations and the developing world are seeking to increase and sustain technical competencies and preparedness of their workforce. The U.S. makes substantial investments in higher education from the undergraduate through the postdoctoral level. But once in the workforce, opportunities available to scientists and engineers for learning experiences that would keep them at the leading edge of knowledge in their field diminish. Further, these opportunities may be falling over time due to a shortening of employment duration with a single employer with an attendant reduction in the willingness of many organizations to invest in continuing education of their employees. The consequence of this situation is to shift the burden of maintaining human capital to individual workers. While many studies from the National Academies, the Council on Competitiveness and other think-tanks have commented on the need for the U.S. to invest in lifelong learning opportunities for working professionals, an in-depth study on the topic has not been conducted since the National Academies report on continuing education was published in 1985. In the last 23 years, dramatic changes have occurred in the global economy. The purpose of this project is to begin a careful assessment of current practices in lifelong learning available to working professional scientists and engineers. In particular, it will explore for possible unmet needs in certain economic sectors or geographic regions. Our nation's technological pre-eminence has benefited from industry-university-government cooperation in determining needs for government-supported basic and applied research and investments in higher education, particularly the education of scientists and engineers. This project is exploring the extent of need and value for greater investments in lifelong learning. The Lifelong Learning Imperative (LLI) workshop is the first step. It will synthesize information gathered from in-depth interviews of thought leaders in lifelong learning from the corporate work, academia and government. This knowledge is fundamental to the development of a framework that enables our nation to sustain the intellectual capital and hence the competitiveness and of its science and engineering workforce.