At the 2025 Business–Higher Education Forum, hosted at Georgia Tech’s Global Learning Center, President Ángel Cabrera reflected on how the Institute’s new College of Lifetime Learning brings lifelong education to the heart of Georgia Tech’s mission. Speaking to national leaders in higher education and industry, Cabrera emphasized that the College’s work—rooted in research, technology, and partnership—will help learners of all ages adapt, advance, and thrive in an era of rapid change.
Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera opened the 2025 Business–Higher Education Forum (BHEF) convening with reflections on the Institute’s newest academic unit, the College of Lifetime Learning (CLL), and its role in shaping the future of education and workforce transformation.
Speaking to leaders from higher education, industry, and government, Cabrera underscored how the new college represents a fundamental shift in how Georgia Tech approaches its mission.
“For many years, many universities—many of your universities—have had programs that reach out to nontraditional learners. But in most cases, including at Tech, traditionally those have been sort of marginal to our main mission. Our mission has always been our undergraduate programs, our graduate programs, our research programs—and then we did all that other work kind of on the side.
“What we did this last year is to actually bring that to the core: to take all of those efforts that range from K to 12—how do we inspire and prepare students to choose careers in science and technology, to teach computer science and engineering in rural areas of this state—to how we help adults who need education to move, to advance, to adapt to AI, whatever it is—how we help everybody throughout their lives. That’s what this new college is about.
“And this college, like every college at Georgia Tech, is based on research. We pride ourselves on being one of the most research-intensive universities in the country. What we’ll be doing in lifetime learning follows the same approach: research, technology—how can we make learning better, how can we partner with others, how can we test whether what we’re doing is working.
“I am delighted to work with business and our partners in education for a mission that could not be more important.”
The Business–Higher Education Forum, now in its 45th year, brings together corporate and university leaders to develop collaborative strategies that strengthen the workforce and advance innovation in education. The 2025 convening, hosted at Georgia Tech’s Global Learning Center, builds on discussions from the P3EDU conference held earlier in the week, with sessions focused on artificial intelligence, upskilling, and the future of lifelong learning.
By hosting BHEF 2025, the College of Lifetime Learning affirms its commitment to bridging the needs of learners and employers through research-based innovation and partnership. As Cabrera emphasized, nothing we accomplish will happen without collaboration.