Study says, associations must target Millennial learners.

The Millennial generation—of which I’m a proud card-carrying member—has certainly been a hot topic during the last couple of years. As the largest working generation, we’re shaping how associations recruit, engage and retain membership. Smart association leaders are quickly realizing that continuing education programming is an offering highly valued by young professionals.

To learn more, Community Brands recently took a deep dive into the subject in our Member Professional Development Study. We dissected the survey data by generations to determine if Millennial learners had unique preferences in their continuing education needs, content, delivery methods, pricing, and more.

In addition, we recently hosted a webinar on the topic of Millennial Learners, during which we polled the audience of association professionals and gained insight into how their practices lined up with Millennial preferences. The results are interesting.

Look at the outcomes:

Question 1: Do you struggle to attract younger members to your education and training?

Many association professionals agree the struggle is real when it comes to attracting Millennial members to their education and training. This reinforces our survey data, which found this is the number one challenge organizations face in providing quality education, professional development and training programs to their members.

Question 2: How do you deliver content today? Select all that apply.

In our survey, Millennials told us they’ve recently attended an in-person course (86 percent) and online webinars (77 percent). So, it’s encouraging to see our polling results align to the types of training Millennials tend to take.

Millennials told us they’ve recently attended an in-person course (86 percent) and online webinars (77 percent)

Question 3: Are you incorporating any of the following techniques today? Select all that apply.

When it comes to Millennials, one of the top reasons we join an association is to gain applicable information to help us grow in our careers. That means the type of content we’re looking for is just-in-time learning and just-in-case learning. Both provide content applicable for the workforce and can be applied to our everyday jobs.

Tailored programs and targeted content by generation can have a truly beneficial effect on your education programs. Understanding the various needs of your members, depending upon where they are in their career journeys, can pay huge dividends.

Tailored programs and targeted content by generation can have a truly beneficial effect on your education programs

Looking to strategize your Millennial efforts? Watch our webinar, then share some of your strategies that have worked for your organization.