Accelerators – a phrase used to refer to fixed-term, cohort-based programs, that include mentorship and educational components – are most strongly associated with tech-driven startups. However Zahra Davidson, the co-founder of Enrol Yourself spotted the opportunity to apply this process to an emerging yet increasingly important demographic of people in the working world: lifelong learners.
The premise of Enrol Yourself is simple: it’s like a marathon, but for learning. In this learning marathon, those who are accepted onto the accelerator must design their planned route to success and then crowd-source the support they need to see it through.
How it works
The participants (or ‘learners’) gather together as a cohort, each with different but discrete goals in mind, ranging from developing a business plan, learning to code, or learning to combat a fear of public speaking. Learners then set goals and discuss some of the meta skills that their projects may have in common and discover transferrable skills that can be used across the learners’ multiple projects.
They meet regularly and set targets for work completed, and use peer coaching as the mentorship element of the accelerator to encourage one another. Those wishing to enter invest their own funds, but at a level that is far more sustainable than a standard course. In this way it shares a lot in common with Toastmasters, in that the majority of the accelerator experience is driven by the participants themselves.
“I wanted to create a form of flexible learning that was bespoke to someone’s needs but also financially sustainable” said Zahra, who also believes the balance between the self-directed approach to study, and the experience of being in a learning community where people have common goals – despite the differences between the projects themselves – to be highly beneficial to those who join the learning accelerator group.
The benefits
There are key advantages to this model as well as the price: skills such as leadership, creativity, lateral thinking and cognitive flexibility are “baked into” the experience – learners have to look for the connections between their projects, think of ways to apply skills from others’ projects, be accountable for mentoring and being teachable. Participants report feeling motivated by the collective will of the group and the 360 reviews that make up part of the mentoring process means that participants receive regular feedback on their progress.
What’s more this approach has proven to be popular; while the April cohort is now full, you can get in touch with them here to find out about the next accelerator.