We didn’t train people well the first time. This is a common story I hear people share about why continuing education (synonym for lifelong learning in this article) has become so popular. College didn’t prepare graduates for real life. Seminary didn’t prepare pastors for what congregations actually need. The nonprofit down the street handed new staff a binder and called it training. So now, we’re all going back for more, one webinar, one certificate, one on-demand video at a time, to fix what should have been done right the first time. It’s a convenient story, but far too small.
The first issue is that the story assumes learning is something that can be completed, that there’s a point at which a person learns enough and never needs to revisit old concepts or ideas. I’m not sure that has ever been true. In fact, the more you look at the numbers across industries, the clearer it becomes: the problem isn’t the content. It’s the clock. This is true in college classrooms, in seminaries, and in nonprofits, just as much as it is in any corporate office.
The World is Changing Rapidly
Knowledge is going out of date faster than ever before. Research from Fuel50 found that skills now become outdated about twice as fast as they did ten years ago. What used to take fifteen years now takes about five. More than half of organizations say it’s even quicker than that: 53% report that important skills in their field become obsolete within three years or less. That’s not a sign that someone trained us wrong. It’s a sign that things are changing more quickly than we can keep up.
…skills now become outdated about twice as fast as they did ten years ago.
The World Economic Forum’s 2025 report on the future of jobs found a similar trend. “Employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030.” Interestingly, that number has actually decreased from 44% in 2023, and the report suggests that more people are treating learning as an ongoing habit rather than a one-time event, which is helping organizations keep up with change. As such, the question isn’t whether we have finally fixed our learning modules. It’s whether we have stopped treating learning as a one-time event.
We Already Know This
While this might be news for some of us, the reality is that professionals and academics have known this for a while. In 2016, Pew Research Center found that 73% of American adults consider themselves lifelong learners, and among working adults, 63% say they’ve taken a course or received extra training in the last year just to grow in their jobs. When Pew asked people why they keep learning, the top reason personal learners gave was wanting a fuller, more interesting life — with the desire to help others coming in a close second.
You can see this instinct playing out clearly in theological education as well. According to the Association of Theological Schools’ own 2025–2026 Annual Data Tables, total headcount enrollment across all member schools reached 81,364 students in fall 2025, up from 79,006 the year before, and part of a steady climb from 76,195 in 2023. Among schools that have reported consistently over the past five years, enrollment grew 2.9% in 2025, on top of 3.0% growth in 2024. What’s striking is where that growth is concentrated. Enrollment in traditional degree programs grew a modest 2.2% between 2024 and 2025, but enrollment in non-degree programs jumped more than 11% in that same year and has grown by nearly half since 2021.
…enrollment in non-degree programs jumped more than 11% in that same year and has grown by nearly half since 2021.
Nonprofits Want More Training Than They Can Afford
If there’s a place where the “we did it wrong the first time” story really falls apart, it’s the nonprofit world. But the problem with nonprofits usually isn’t bad training; it’s not enough training. A recent survey of nonprofit and association employees found that two out of three would rather have opportunities to grow their skills than get a pay raise. In fact, 65% of employees with a clear path to growth plan stay in their jobs, compared to just 27% of those without. Those are compelling numbers. And yet, nonprofit organizations typically spend somewhere between $500 and $2,000 per employee each year on professional development. This is far below what for-profit companies invest. Separate research found that two out of three nonprofits still don’t have a formal program to develop their leaders. The gap tells the real story. The people doing this work aren’t asking for more training because they feel shortchanged. They’re asking because they understand, better than most, that the world they serve (the needs of their community, the tools available to them, the policies that shape their work) never holds still long enough for one round of training to last a whole career.
…two out of three nonprofits still don’t have a formal program to develop their leaders.
Why This Is Happening Right Now
None of this is happening by coincidence. A few things are converging at once, creating this unique moment in education and training. First, technology is changing faster than any class, textbook, or curriculum can keep up with. Add AI to the conversation, and it’s simply unprecedented. Second, political and social change keeps reshaping the ground institutions stand on. Nothing feels firm anymore. Funding, policy, and public need can shift in a matter of months. Third, the world itself, from a changing climate to the workforce and congregations that now span five generations, is asking every field to adapt, not just its job titles, but the way it thinks about the work. Put those together, and there’s really only one conclusion to draw: we must figure out how to keep learning faster than the world keeps changing.
It Isn’t Fixing the Past. It’s Preparing Us for the Future.
So yes, continuing education is having its moment, but not because we failed our people the first time and are just trying to make it up to them. It’s because the first round of learning was never going to be enough. Not for anyone. Not in any field. Not in any world that is changing this quickly.
The places getting this right aren’t trying to patch one specific gap. They’re equipping people who can meet the moment with resiliency, creativity, and innovation. This is not a fallback plan; it’s the whole point. Continuing education was never meant to be a sequel to formal education. It’s what education was always intended to be: lifelong.
Rev. Dr. Lindsay Andreolli-Comstock is a co-founder and the managing director of Tumbuh Global.
Founded in January 2018, Tumbuh Global is an internationally recognized educational design and executive consulting firm. We work with theological schools, government training entities, nonprofit organizations, and religious bodies to build sustainable, high-impact educational ecosystems.
Sources:
World Economic Forum, “Skills Outlook, The Future of Jobs Report 2025”
Pew Research Center, “Americans, Lifelong Learning and Technology”
The Association of Theological Schools, “2025–2026 Annual Data Tables“
(Tables 2.2, 2.5, 2.7)Momentive, “State of the Mission-Driven Workforce in 2026”
Center for Non-Profit Coaching, “Nonprofit Leadership Development Statistics 2026“ (citing Bridgespan and Nonprofit HR sector estimates)
NonProfit PRO, “Study: 47% of Nonprofits Lack Funds to Deliver Programs, Services” (citing Forvis Mazars’ 2025 State of the Nonprofit Sector Report)
SkyQuest, “Continuing Education Market Size, Share | Growth Analysis”
Mordor Intelligence, “Continuing Education Market Share & Size 2031 Outlook”