The concept of autonomous learning first appeared as a viable concept the 1970s. While it has experienced success in higher education, it has not been readily adopted by the corporate sector. Where it has, for all intents and purposes, it has been adopted in name only. Letting employees choose what training programs they want to attend or modules they want to study is not self-directed learning as originally conceived by Malcolm Knowles.
Until now there has not been an articulated approach to implementing self-directed learning in the world of corporate training. Self-directed learning represents a major paradigm shift in thinking about the responsibility for workplace learning. In addition, it offers practical benefits for organizations in keeping their employees skills up-to-date in a cost-effective manner.