Language courses for older employees: Audiovisual Concepts most Suitable
The ageing of many Western society and the partly related skill shortages have resulted in renewed attention on age diversity, and on older employees more specifically. In this context, lifelong learning for employees of all ages has become a household concept for talent management and personnel development. The potentially different learning styles or learning preferences of different generations have, however, gotten less attention. In some cases, this has even led to the biased perception of older employees being less willing or able to learn. A new study has taken another close look at the effectiveness of learning methodologies across age groups. In the context of globalisation, international business contacts, mergers and acquisitions, and multilingual teams, the researchers focused on the question of learning or improving foreign language skills. They found out that, despite a decline in memory, the learning aptitude of older people is not necessarily limited. The only precondition is that the learning methods have to be adjusted to the needs of older learners. Suitable methods for instance include concrete, pictorial, and clearly conditioned information. Abstract contents or ex-cathedra teaching on the other hand are less suitable. Learning a new language therefore can easily be facilitated through the insertion of audiovisual concepts.
The results of the study tell lifelong learning concepts to offer their content in different forms because other studies found that social and action learning is also becoming more important – especially for the younger generation.
