"Our work with IHEs and districts is about advancing the teacher profession and ensuring that every classroom is led by well-prepared educators. We believe that understanding and employing these (learner-centered) approaches is part of effective teaching." -Survey respondent

See below for some examples of newer emerging players that are redefining roles, pathways, and sources of talent for learning.

As we looked at entities specifically providing professional learning and talent system services, we found that ~20% of capacity builders are professional learning providers. 10% of dataset entities overall focus explicitly on changing adult roles and developing skills as their primary focus for innovation. Digging into these subgroups, alignment and commitment to specific learner-centered approaches and future horizons varied but trended towards more traditional visions and models.

Professional learning organizations appeared to operate in a "current" horizon 2/3rds of the time. Learner-centered approaches were also less frequently cited in missions and models of more traditional professional learning providers and talent systems advisors less than 40% of the time. Across segments, only 20% of those organizations focused on adult roles and development made explicit mention of learner-centered strategies and visions.

BUT this pattern did not hold for all entities; those providing adult learning platforms, or services associated with new models were much more likely to point to specific learner-centered goals and strategies. For the former group, it is likely that entities seeking to innovate on traditional models for adult learning hold similar visions for students. For the latter group, this likely points to the fact that those building new approaches must rely on their own services to build the skills and competencies necessary for their models.

These patterns suggest that changing the mindsets and buy-in of traditional adult learning and talent entities, reinforced by market demands, will require significant transformation work. In the meantime, ensuring those providing new models receive the investment they need to build their own pipelines and supports in the meantime will likely be critical.

(Note: these examples are illustrative and intended to reflect a diverse array of theories, approaches, and stakeholders, including less well-known or emerging initiatives. We also attempted to avoid duplication across categories.)