Nearly half of American, British and Australian adults believe that college failed to prepare them for working life and their current roles, while only one quarter said that it did, a new survey found. 

Forty-six percent of the more than 3,000 employees between the ages of 18 and 75 polled on their attitudes to learning in the workforce by content platform Go1 said that higher education failed to prepare them for their current jobs. Instead, employees cited hands-on experience and working as a better education about the workplace than college, with 61 percent of respondents saying that work experience best prepared them for their jobs, 41 percent saying it was formal on-the-job training, and 37 percent saying it was life experience. Only 25 percent said higher education best prepared them for their work role.

When asked what they wish they had known before entering the workforce, 50 percent of employees said how to approach career progression, 32 percent said fundamentals of the role and 31 percent said how to collaborate with people in other departments.

The respondents showed optimism when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI)’s impact on their work and ability to learn. Forty-eight percent of employees were open to using AI-generated learning materials or using AI tools to help them learn, while 45 percent of employees agreed or completely agreed that AI will help them develop skills needed in the workplace more quickly.

Employees are also using video-based platforms such as TikTok to learn. Short videos of fewer than three minutes (47 percent) and on-the-job training with a real-life instructor (46 percent) are the top learning content types provided by employers. Forty-two percent of employees like to use short videos and 47 percent like real-life instruction.

“The ability to personalize learning to the varied needs of different generations can mean the difference between a high-performing workforce and an under-par one,” said Go1 CEO Chris Eigeland. “Learning-anddevelopment leaders will need to find new ways to tailor content curation, development and delivery strategies to the unique learning preferences of different generations if they hope to use learning as a competitive lever and close workforce skills gaps.”