The Wharton school at the University of Pennsylvania is teaming up with the university’s graduate education school to offer a graduate degree programme to learning officers.
The Executive Program in Work-Based Learning Leadership gives a formalised education in business, leadership, technology and strategy to chief learning officers. The aim is to equip the CLO to function at the same strategic level as the rest of the senior executives in the organisation.
Both in the number of students and in the amount of money spent, workplace learning now dwarfs higher education, according to the University of Pennsylvania. Says Doug Lynch, vice dean at the graduate school of education, “Most adults learn on the job rather than in a formal educational setting. The average Fortune 1000 company spends 2.5 per cent of its operating budget on learning. For many of these companies, that amounts to tens of millions of dollars.”
The programme will begin in January, 2007.
