Leaving no one behind

After three days of the ETF-UNESCO conference on inclusive lifelong learning for green and digital societies, let us take stock of where we are, as we head into the high-level meetings tomorrow. 

The conference topic is complex. We tried to break it down into its constituent parts: changing skills demands, new forms of learning, the role of different actors, monitoring, inclusion and supporting the green transition. As it turns out, however, many of the very diverse discussions return the same basic recommendations.

We need to move from stop-gap solutions to holistic approaches, be that in inclusion or in the green and digital transitions. These are not areas that affect just one sector or one country. They are all-pervading. In the green transition, grassroots action needs to be taken up a notch. Likewise, we need to move away from islands of innovation and towards a system-wide course of action. 

We need to cooperate, collaborate, co-create, work together on what ETF director Cesare Onestini called “shared commitments”. Throughout the sessions, many expressions were used to make the same point.

• Inclusive lifelong learning involves everyone.

• The only way to approach it is by addressing and including everyone.

• Lifelong learning is a common good and must become a basic human right.

• As a result, it cannot be left entirely to individuals, the market or authorities. 

“We need to cooperate more closely than ever before to make sure we leave no one behind,” said UNESCO’s Borhène Chakroun. 

Most of all, it must be universally understood that lifelong learning is here to stay. As Manuela Geleng, Director of Skills at the European Commission’s DG Employment, put it:

“Lifelong learning is not an option. It is the key to our collective success.”

And collective success is what is required as we face the challenges of globalisation, digitalisation and climate change. When we think of the changing demand for skills in the green and digital transitions, we often think about how many more people we need in the energy, environment and IT sectors. But the changes are much more profound than that.  

First of all, learning has changed. Young people who had already spent half their lives on YouTube had known it for years. Covid-19 really hammered it home for the rest of us. If we want to move towards lifelong learning for all, we must embrace the fact that the boundaries between formal and informal education are blurring have blurred and create synergy between old and new learning institutions and environments.

As for the world of work, the gig economy and platform work are dramatically changing not just the content but also the nature of labour. While this has advantages for many people, it also poses risks that few fully comprehend.

“Work evolution has become a revolution,” said ETF labour market expert Iwona Ganko.

Because of the low barriers to entry and global access, platform work opens new possibilities for many people among whom, importantly, are traditionally disadvantaged people such as physically disabled people and people with social impediments, tech-savvy people in low-income countries, people who are between jobs and people with rare skills. However, with increasing numbers of people now essentially becoming self-employed, it is important that they do not bear the whole burden of financing and even just sourcing the repeated cycles of reskilling required. Governments and industry have to establish ecosystems of support.

So the global digital transition is being quite the leveller for those who can follow its beat, but for those who cannot, it has been deeply disruptive. And the future will undoubtedly bring more disruption that we can only prepare ourselves for by being flexible and willing to constantly learn.

"Lifelong learning shouldn’t feel as a life sentence, but as life satisfaction" - ETF's Jolien van Uden reminded the conference participants.

It is encouraging to see that young people have proven to be very resilient to many of the recent changes, but it is discouraging to see where their resilience came from. In their own words, through a joint ETF-UNICEF survey study that was published this week, more than 56% of the young respondents had little or no career input from the school system. Instead, well over two-thirds had as primary career choice sources the internet and social media (42%), parents and family (27%) and friends (8%). Another problem articulated was a perceived lack of connection between universities and businesses.

On the green transition and its skills implications, the same survey had another stark warning: while 90% of the 8,000 surveyed students said the green economy was important to them, 85% said that governments were not doing enough to encourage it and barely 30% agreed that their schools taught them enough about green issues. 

Finally, as the world is changing at breakneck speed, so is our response to it, as individuals and as societies. How will we ever know how to respond? And when we respond, how will we know if we did it right? 

By measuring and analysing evidence. 

In this maelstrom of change, monitoring is the only grip we have on reality. In our monitoring we increasingly have to balance between the need for speed and the need for accuracy. The haystack in which we find our needles of evidence keeps growing exponentially, but ignoring evidence and doing nothing is infinitely worse, as we have only recently witnessed again during the epidemic crisis. 

In fact, Covid-19 is almost an allegory of the times we live in. It came without warning. We were unprepared. We responded too late and teetered on the brink of disinformation chaos but we are coming out of it by monitoring hard and learning fast.

We can do this too.

 

Join us tomorrow and Friday for the High Level Event, or (re)view the thematic sessions, here.