Have you ever paid to take an online course, or even started one with the support of your employer, and failed to get to the end? If so, you are in good company.

The careers of the future, it is often said, will be built on constant learning. The requirements for many jobs change too quickly for workers to sit back on what they were taught at university, and demand constant skills renewal. Also, most forms of employment are no longer for life: navigating the labour market at frequent intervals requires the ability to demonstrate the latest marketable skills.

But the new forms of education that are being developed to deal with these needs often fail their customers. In the online learning world, success rates are low and most people give up before they get to the end of even relatively short courses that are meant to teach them new skills.