Why Learning Consistently Keeps Us Young and Relevant
Human Beings are Programed to Learn!
It may sound clichéd but to think that we have reached the epitome of human perfection is to be in a state of oblivion; in fact, it is misaligned to the theory of evolution propounded by Darwin. From the cave man to the IT geek, the expansion of human consciousness has been a story of learning & adventure. Discovering fire, understanding agriculture, inventing tools for survival from the wild, building collective living communities, to learning the finer arts, commerce, and varied domains is a clear pursuit of learning. As human cognition crystallized, the power to analyze, retain, transform knowledge and experience to wisdom quadrupled.
The human brain, the most advanced super-computer on the planet, homes 86 billion neurons - constantly in motion. What amazes me is that the brain is endowed with centers of learning – the cerebral cortex, and more, as neuroscience continues to unveil many facets of the brain. Various traditions of mysticism also point to the fact that the quest has been to enhance our perception, flex the brain - figuratively speaking, access all its corridors filled with greater wisdom & learning. In one of my random reading hours, I chanced upon an exciting insight about the human brain cell – that it moves, it experiences dullness with a status quo, and that it changes when we learn. Learning causes muscle memory; it expands our horizon to absorb more.
This wide-ranging perspective of both science & mysticism drive home a point - that genetically human beings are programed for perpetual learning & discovery. The boom of digital, cloud, immersive technologies, AI, ML, Robotics, AMS, Mixed Reality (MR) collectively testify that the human brain has encountered many new blocks of learning with the evolution of time; and there is more in store. The foray to space and the dream to colonize Mars are heroic endeavors of humans to learn and explore.
The Demands of the New Reality
The age of intelligence and need for agile learning had dawned long ago; however, it was Covid, which accelerated its acceptance and importance multifold. Data also shows the challenge that organizations faced battling up-skilling journey for their people: industry had to wake up to a new reality, relook at systems, processes, cognitive models, and design new experiences and learning models to counter the demand of the age of intelligence.
Learning on the go is the key to riding this exciting time of human history, and this would mean honing our mental muscle to be a lifelong learner and be true to our evolutionary and genetic built. More so because everything that we see / every device that we interact with now has an in-built brain – constantly accumulating, learning, and becoming a better version of itself with every interaction. Stories are replete of machines beating human intelligence - Deep Blue (an IBM supercomputer) beating the chess champion of the world; AlphaGo (Google’s Deep Mind) beating the world’s GO champion are some recorded instances. I am certain there are many such unrecorded stories where AI / ML / DL outpaced human intelligence. Furthermore, research states that we have just scratched the surface of designing super intelligent machines.
The EdTech start-ups came as a boon to enable this demand for quick learning. Research says that course enrollments have grown multiple folds since 2020, 400% spike in course enrollments for individuals, 80% in business and government use, and 55% more new courses were added by course curators.
FutureSkills Prime, the National Digital Skilling Platform, which was launched in November 2021 has 6 lakh sign-ups already. Bite size modules, gamification, rise in AV content, skill-based courses, community learning experience – all of this delivered on digital is a welcome change to the learning ecosystem. It has democratized the learning experience and made it accessible to all.
In our industry alone, we experienced an exponential growth and demand of memory and storage solutions with in-built accelerators and intelligence. Mobile, automotive, connected networks, and graphics industry are constantly seeking smarter and agile solutions; forcing us to go back to our drawing boards, re-look at our products and solutions, and re-invent. Our talent pool upskilled at a rapid pace to meet customer needs and counter the new layer of intelligence designed by humans that is self-learning at a pace higher and faster than humans. Machine intelligence, we all know is adding cognitive layers of understanding to itself, to be autonomous and socially responsible, and thrive as independent bodies.
Focus on Learning @Micron
As an organization, we witnessed a great surge in the consumption of our learning offerings. Micron has an internal learning repository - Micron University, which houses a wide portfolio of learning programs, resources, apps, and tools curated internally. It also has a plethora of courses from industry bests like IEE, Gartner, Steven Covey, Skillsoft Percipio, Emergenetics International, Culture Wizard etc. In FY 20-21, learning hours shot up to four million plus across geographies. Tech courses around AI, Cybersecurity, Cloud Computing, Virtual Reality, Data Science, BI Predictive Analytics, IOT, AWS, Azure, Tubule, Kubernetes, Automation etc. witnessed an all-time high of about three million plus hours and behavioral skills shot up to one million plus hours. New courses are introduced continuously for our team members’ engagement, empowerment, and growth. Our Digital Skills Academy is one such product besides others in Leadership Development, Career Development, Wellbeing etc. Our people getting externally certified also saw a rise by 83%.
We made focused efforts to contribute to the learning ecosystem, externally, as well. Through Micron India’s University Research Alliance (URAM), we organized lecture series in leading engineering institutions of the country, across the spectrum of engineering sciences and emergent technologies. We created programs of collaboration to foster collective learning, innovation, and research. The journey has been very fulfilling, and we are working on deepening our outreach and contribution to the learning environment of India, and the globe.
Written by Anand Ramamoorthy, Vice President & Managing Director, Micron Technology, India