As a newly minted professional accountant I taught a few accounting courses at Camosun College in Victoria, BC back in the 1990s. The night school students I encountered were a lot different than full time students I taught during the day.

I used to say the difference was night and day.

As adults starting a new career, there are a great many skills to learn. The new competency map for CPAs – Canada’s regulatory body for accountants – speaks of enabling competencies that include self-direction. However, they continue to embrace learning strategies designed for the industrial age. Our current model for training young adults was developed in an industrial age. It resembles a production line and mostly has the effect of extending adolescence and increasing the costs of education.

In the 21^st century we are beginning to see a shift from traditional models for delivering ‘learning’. The traditional model is focused on ‘teaching’ as opposed to ‘learning’. Clearly, we need to facilitate ‘learning’ – and that can’t be ‘delivered’, it has to be ‘absorbed’.

Malcolm Knowles – a leading expert on adult education (“androgogy”) contrasted the the approaches used in teaching children and youth with those developed for adult learners. In particular he talked about adults being naturally self-directed. Adults do best with experiential learning, using practical tools to solve real-world problems.