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Learning as a hobby: Interest as a motivation to learn

A large proportion of people engage in learning because they are interested in a subject area. For example, some people cite interest as their primary motivation for engaging in learning. In our study on IT courses, 45% of those who had done a course said they had doe so "for their own interest".

It is also integral that people have an interest in their course if they are to have a positive learning experience. We have found that there is a strong relationship between learners' levels of interest and enjoyment in a course.

Hobbies are an important motivation for some people. They choose to do a course purely because it relates to a hobby or interest they already have. Learning is about enjoyment and improving the quality of their leisure time. One man explains:

"My biggest hobby is I rebuild, restore old cars. And the one thing I could never do was weld. So I went and actually took on a welding course. So now I've got, through my own playing about and being taught, I can now do everything from strip an engine down, rebuild it, and now I can weld the bits and pieces back on my car and weld the rot holes up."

Hobbies into Jobs: Other people are motivated by an interest in a subject, but are aware that furthering this interest through learning could enhance their employability, or help them in a job they already have. One example of this is learning about IT:

"...I've always had a great interest in computers and plus it was part of my daily working life anyway so the more I could take on board the better it could be."

Related to this, some younger people choose learning with the aim of gaining employment through doing it, but are choosing the subject area and employment path because they are interested in it. For example, a person doing a sports course because they want to get into a career using sports.

Love of Learning: For some people, the act of learning itself is considered to be an interest. Gaining new skills and knowledge, and the enjoyment that this brings, is the ultimate aim for people who have this as their main motivation for engaging in learning.

To a large extent, this is related to people's age and the stage of their life course. As people get older, learning becomes more and more linked to interest and leisure pursuits as learning for work becomes unnecessary. When people enter retirement they have more time which they can devote to hobbies and interests - and for some people this means they have more time to learn.

"...well I've always been interested in Geography. That's why I'm doing this course because I never got a chance when I was at high school; I thought I'd give it a try when I retire, so here I am."

For some, retirement is a learning opportunity not to be missed!

Overall, many people choose to learn because they are interested in a subject area, rather than feeling that they need to learn because they are compelled to do so for reasons such as work or wanting to support their children.

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