Job seekers and corporations designing training programs for employees have to find ways to rapidly adapt to ever-changing market needs. Nowadays, learning models go way beyond the classroom: online as well as physical learning communities give access to a sheer endless array of information, enabling acquisition of knowledge at lightning speed, luring into a quest of continuous perfection and completion of existing skills sets.

Throughout my (business) travels I came into contact with several game changers in the world of (workplace) education. This article mainly focusses on institutions teaching coding — all of them setting great examples of innovative, high-impact learning environments.
What are some of the current learning trends in the quest for rapid, effective, and continuous skills acquisition?

Trend 1) Peer-to-peer learning: participatory learning that allows students to learn through project-based learning. 
Peer learning comes out of cognitive psychology, and is applied within a “mainstream” educational framework: students interact with other students to attain educational goals. It can take place in a formal or informal learning context, in small groups or online. Example institutions:
- 42 School, a private French computer programming/ coding school created and funded by Xavier Niel (Founder of Illiad) with several partners including Nicolas Sadirac (previous General Director of Epitech), Kwame Yamgnane and Florian Bucher (previous executives of Epitech). The training is inspired by new modern ways to teach which include peer-to-peer pedagogy. There’s no teacher but instead, a whole gamified experience that pushes you to learn alone and based on your peers.
- At Stanford University and UC Berkeley, Professor Howard Rheingold has facilitated peer learning and collaboration through the Social Media Classroom: “With classes that meet face to face, the Co-Lab can help with co-construction of knowledge (by group editing of wikis), discussions that extend beyond the class meeting time (through forums and blogs), and a constructive backchannel for class meetings through microblogging and chat.”

Trend 2) Microlending for education: invest in learners so they can have more and better job opportunities.
Example institution: Denmark-based Coderstrust has figured out how to leverage this well: they invest time and money in IT students and get a commission on all the freelance jobs they perform afterwards. Coderstrust provides a Trustscore for each student and combines a “Learn & Earn” approach: they teach tech skills and help students market themselves on freelance platforms (such as Upwork). As Stéphane Kasriel, Upwork’s CEO framed it during the next:economy conference in November, workers should be considering lifelong learning as a key driver and go back and fourth between jobs & learnings to have more opportunities.

Trend 3) Programs focusing on holistic development: developing attitudes and transversal, real-world competences instead of a specific job-related knowledge.
Example institution: Hyper Island is a creative business school with a consultancy side specializing in real-world industry training using digital technology. It was founded 1996 in Sweden and is sometimes referred to as “The Digital Harvard” and has been listed by CNN as one of the “most interesting schools around the world”. 
Hyper Island focuses on un-traditional methods of education to prepare people for today’s changing world. 
• Experiential learning.
• Real projects with real clients
• Lifelong learning
• Reflection and teamwork
Through this methodology, Hyper Island has delivered industry talents skilled with team-work ability, self-leadership and creativity to a lot of companies over the past two decades.

Trend 4) Mentor programs: you can get knowledge from books, tutorials, blog posts, attending Coursera courses, but when you try to apply that knowledge, there is often something missing. Imparting wisdom by pairing students with mentors who can challenge them with hands-on projects and problems will take previously acquired skills to an operational level.
Example institution: Data science retreat (Berlin) is designed to match data science experts with job seekers in that field, and transform theoretical (technical and business) knowledge into real workplace skills.

Trend 5) Bootcamps: dive into coding through a two-month long program to become a fullstack developer.
Example institution: The concept is simple: code, code, code. These intense learning experiences are becoming more prevalent across Europe but Paris-based Le Wagon is especially inspiring in this regard: they provide creative people with a solid tech toolbox to give life to their ideas. It’s expanding quickly with current operations in 5 French and 4 European cities — and more is yet to come.