The ability to take ownership of learning is more than a nice-to-have. —It’s essential. Self-directed learning empowers employees to choose what, how, and when they learn, making it a powerful method for developing skills, building personal autonomy, and driving career success.
With Degreed, organizations can support and scale the autonomous learning process by offering tools that provide guidance and resources, foster independence, and drive meaningful outcomes.
What is self-directed learning?
While learning teams and mentors guide the learning process, self-directed employees take the lead.
At its core, independent learning is about individuals setting their own learning goals, selecting appropriate learning strategies, engaging with mentors, using material resources, and evaluating learning outcomes at their own pace. This approach helps people to build critical thinking and problem-solving skills and to expand their self-awareness as part of their personal and professional growth.
Why Self-Directed Learning Matters for Organizations
In a corporate setting, self-directed growth is designed to develop more agile, motivated individuals. We created Degreed to support this goal.
With Degreed, your organization can:
- Identify and connect people with the resources they need to reach their objectives
- Use AI-powered assessment tools to track and support skill-building
- Encourage intrinsic motivation by linking development to personal and business outcomes
This is especially important for employees learning in the flow of work. With Degreed, companies can support their people in developing self-directed learning skills that are critical to everyday life in the workplace.
Supporting the Self-Directed Learning Environment
Creating a strong learner-led development environment means providing structure while maintaining flexibility. It includes:
- Helping employees with formulating learning goals
- Offering a wide range of material resources and learning strategies
- Enabling access to tools for assessing self-paced learning progress
Degreed gives L&D leaders the tools to foster independence among their people and to maintain learning alignment with business objectives. Degreed empowers employees to:
- Set and pursue their own learning goals
- Reflect on learning styles and preferences
- Access colleagues for mentorship and material resources for projects
Examples and Use Cases
For example, a team member starting a self-directed learning project to improve data literacy might:
- Define learning goals using built-in, AI-powered, and skills-first planning tools
- Access on-demand courses through content provider integrations, as well as AI-powered learning experiences such as coaching and role-play
- Track progress using AI-powered assessment tools and receive feedback from mentors
Facilitating Adult Learning and Self-Direction
As they build competitive advantage, one of the biggest responsibilities for organizations today is facilitating personalized employee learning.
Degreed supports:
- Personalized pathways for unique learning needs and multiple learning styles
- Scalable, AI-powered tools for supporting self-regulated learning
- Skill assessments to help employees understand their self-directed learning outcomes in real-time
The goal is to create space where employees work toward mastery at their own pace, gaining knowledge through personalized and adaptable learning experiences.
Final Thoughts
Self-direction isn’t a luxury. It’s a foundation for growth.
Degreed enables employees and organizations to fully engage with the self-directed learning model, turning learning situations into powerful moments of discovery and advancement.
Whether you’re designing a leadership program, supporting a coding curriculum, or encouraging other types of professional education at your company, Degreed can help your people develop skills, embrace lifelong learning, and succeed on the journey to becoming self-directed.
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