and what were they encouraged to learn?
Was it a generic "seek knowledge", was it just islam (which would be from the Prophet (saw)) or was it a mixture?
Did the Prophet 
encourage them to learn anything that in this and age would not be considered religious education?
Salaam
To clarify, are you asking if they (RA) were encouraged to learn what would be considered today to be secular knowledge?
Gentleness and kindness were never a part of anything except that it made it beautiful, and harshness was never a part of anything except that it made it ugly.
Through cheating, stealing, and lying, one may get required results but finally one becomes
worldy career knowledge won't benefit you in the next life whereas scared knowledge will. well it can but you know.
if you don't know something is haram, you will be living in sin and every sin has a punishment, unless God forgives you. the scholars say ignorance is not an excuse now because knowledge is easily available. Allahu alam.
if you have knowledge, you will know that xyz is haram and will stay away from it. the prophet
said: those that abandon my sunnah are not from me. now, if you don't know what the sunnah is, you fall into that category. following the sunnah makes the prophet 
happy and making the prophet 
happy, you make Allah happy with you.
eg: say you don't know that 1/4 masa'h is fardh in wudu. you miss it and pray, your salah wont be valid because your wudu wasn't. now salah is fardh and if you have been doing that all your life, you have got a lot to answer to.
scared knowledge is hadith and quran. if you know that and follow it, you are sorted. you are sailing to jannah.
seeking knowledge is fardh.
Personally obligatory and required knowledge, and the works of hadith literature in English
you get the drift.
Ignorance is bliss to an extent.
If you did not deliberately avoid the knowledge of something, you may not be held accountable when erring as the thought that the matter needs further investigating may not even have crossed your mind. ("It's clearly allowed!")
Secondly, if you know something is not allowed and you still do it, surely that is worse than not knowing and doing it?
So ignorance also has its positive values.
On the issue of religious knowledge benefiting you in the afterlife and wordly knowledge not doing so, that is an incorrect assumption.
As mentioned above, having religious knowledge can make you doing wrong worse. Also, having wordly knowledge can allow you to earn in a halaal manner, keep your interactions with others halaal, live a life that has more degrees of separation from haraam, so even wordly knowledge does have an impact in the afterlife.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
Ignorance is bliss to an extent.
Question is what if a person continues for their whole life staying in ignorance with the ignorant idea that "I dont know so Im not accountable"...when clearly it will reach a point where he knows enough to be accounted.
I remember hearing somewhere that Dheen and Duniya were not separated in Islam, the way it has been made today by years of atheism/secularism and in general the whole Humanism movement in Renaissance England which attempted to remove God from human life.
When I was watching this programme Science & Islam on BBC 4(? i think), he was saying the scholars at the time of the Caliphates had a great level of worldly knowledge because they understood 1. seeking Ilm was a fard and would 2. help them understand Allah's creation, 3. Be closer to Allah through understanding his creation/signs. 4. They were preparing for their akhirah through it.
So theres nothing wrong with gaining Wordly ilm, Muslims arent permitted to remain ignorant BUT gaining useless knowledge devoid of any morals or knowledge that encourages evil/stirs up desires, as a Muslim you would refrain from learning that type of worldly knowledge. As with anything- learning, interacting, life in general you keep your Akhirah at the forefront of your mind.
Anyway, the two are not separate in Islam because we know that Deen means "way of life" and Duniya is where we live, you take the Dheen (way of life) and apply it to the Duniya (life).
The example of this being the Sahaba and the Prophet saw, the Khilafah wasnt established learning just Dheen, it was applied to their Duniya thus Islam came about in the economy, education system, politics and so on. The two are interlinked, its when you separate them you end up with the situation the majority of Muslims are in today - confused and in despair.
I think Imam Ali AS said something to like, if ignorance was a valid excuse, then only the learned would be questioned on the day of judgement.
I understand what you're saying though, however I don't think we should be content with our ignorance, in the same way that its bad manners to really wish that you were travelling so that you would only have to pray 2 rakats instead of 4.
As for "secular" knowledge, if it benefits your life, you should learn it, e.g. many of the Sahabah knew knowledge of agriculture, knowledge of warfare, knowledge of commerce.
One of my teachers said that you won't be able to work for your akhirah if you aren't stable in your dunya.
Gentleness and kindness were never a part of anything except that it made it beautiful, and harshness was never a part of anything except that it made it ugly.
Through cheating, stealing, and lying, one may get required results but finally one becomes
But isn't all halal knowledge that benefit the Umma or humanity "Islamic" knowledge?
Didn't the Prophet (pbuh) say that "Seek knowlege, even if you have to go to China"
What sort of Islamic (in the literal and narrow sense) knowledge was being taught there?
Coming to what Noor was saying, I've heard from scholars that if you don't know that something is haram and you indulge in it you'll be forgiven, Inshallah, unless you hurt someone else (in that case they'll have to forgive you) or you have no interest in finding out what Allah wants when you have a reason to. That's what I've been told.
“Before death takes away what you are given, give away whatever there is to give.”
Mawlana Jalal ud Din Rumi
No. Fabricated hadith.
Don't just do something! Stand there.