Is resilience beneficial to LLL systems?

The Sustainable Development Goal 4 (#SDG4) focuses on the access to quality learning for everybody by 2030 – no matter the status, background and age of the learner.

The SDG4 therefore prefigures systems where young and adult people can learn formally, non-formally and informally with good quality throughout their lives. In these systems, ministries and sub-national authorities, agencies, providers of education, training and services to employment, sector associations, business support organisations and social partners, civil society organisations (#CSOs) play a role to make vocational education and training, continuous skills development, enhancement of key competences, career guidance and other learning and employment-support services accessible through different learning modes and environments.

Such an ordinary complexity of lifelong learning systems notwithstanding, at times additional pressure comes from unexpected change, e.g. the Covid pandemic, or the digital and green transitions. How can the state and non-state actors deal with it?

The question brings about the notion of #resilience, also described as the ability to bounce back, return to equilibrium, reorganise after a disturbance. However, it may not always be possible to return to a given status. Drawing from the field of environmental studies, Duit, Galaz, Eckerberg, Ebbesson suggest that if multiple equilibria are possible we should focus on the dynamics of change rather than trying to re-establish a pre-existing situation (Governance, complexity, and resilience - ScienceDirect).

Documenting the dynamics of change was the approach of the survey on the resilience of CSOs, which the ETF conducted in 2020. The focus was on how CSOs did adapt their support to non-formal and informal learning and employment during the Covid-19 pandemic, in six countries.

To explore resilience, the ETF survey looked at the:

• CSOs’ scope of work in non-formal and informal learning and support to employment and how it changed as a consequence of COVID 19 crisis;
• CSOs' proactivity vs. reactivity, adaptability, mobilisation of human and financial resources, ability to address new demands, innovation, and organisational learning.

The survey showed that both preparedness ahead of the disturbance, and development from it mattered in terms of CSOs resilience. Most CSOs have learned as organisations through the pandemic crisis. In the short-term, under the pressure of the COVID 19 crisis, they have learned to adjust existing activities – for example in Albania and Uzbekistan, to focus on the most vulnerable population groups to give them voice – for example in Jordan, or to provide part of their services online, among other adaptive actions. Developments with significance in the long-term included the initiation of new activities notably in Serbia and Ukraine, the mobilisation of additional financial resources, and/or the strengthening of collaborative networks. Moreover, some CSOs have discovered their own potential to expand services in the skills development and employment field 5 things you didn’t know about civil society organisations | ETF (europa.eu).

The resilience of CSOs is beneficial for lifelong learning systems. CSOs are often able to serve non-formal and informal learning and support to employment even in crisis periods, a capacity which is in the public interest and matches the purpose of the SDG4.

By involving CSOs, lifelong learning systems can gain resilience and develop from it. Participatory governance processes that embrace non-state actors such as CSOs increase the chances of positive outcomes after disruptive changes, that is better equilibria than before the crisis. Participatory governance, therefore, comes into play by giving a direction to resilience: lifelong learning systems should use resilience to continuously improve access to good quality learning at any age and leave none behind.

Watch the video #LearningConnects: Resilient and participatory governance for lifelong learning and employment - YouTube

For an overview of the survey’s purpose, scope and methodology, check Area 5.1 - Civil society organizations | Open Space (europa.eu) and Methodology | Open Space (europa.eu).