Building Lifelong Learning ecosystems through coaching: Insights from a coaching intervention with workplace learners

Unlike traditional students, workplace learners face added pressures from work, family, and study. Drawing on insights from a nine-month coaching intervention implemented in Singapore where workplace learners were supported through coaching conversations with either external professional coaches or internal coach-educators, this paper discusses how coaching helped learners with their goal setting process and cultivated self-directed habits essential for lifelong learning.

Coaches’ session notes provided a view into how coaches facilitated reflection, accountability, and meaning-making and how learners articulated, refined, and worked toward their goals over time. Their experiences suggest that coaching can be a meaningful support mechanism for workplace learners by helping them gain clearer sight of the goals they are working towards, while reinforcing learners’ beliefs in their ability to grow and achieve these goals.