New Skills and Competence Building

1
New Skills and Competence Building

• Summary of Presentations and Discussions
• of the Seminar
• "Towards the Learning Society", Lisbon, 28/30
  May 2000
• Convenor ROBERTO CARNEIRO

2
Key Research Issues

• Is a sustainable learning society demanding a
  higher order set of skills and competencies?
• Are the educational institutions adequately
  responding to the challenges of producing these
  skills and competencies?
• Can the learning society develop a more learning
  inclusive paradigm than its industrial
  predecessor?
• How can Europe make the most of work related and
  organisational learning?

3
Is a sustainable learning society demanding a
higher order set of skills and competencies?

• Minimum learning platform
• how to define one?
• how to implement it? policies? what works?
• For the school-age population
• For the adult population
• Better balance between knowledge acquisition
  sources- workplace and traditional learning loci
• Which is the necessary mix of economically driven
  skills (firm specific or generic) and citizenship
  skills? what is the role of public policy and
  finance in providing for one or the other

4
Are the educational institutions adequately
responding to the challenges of producing these
skills and competencies?

• Are the education institutions themselves
  learning organisations?
• Do institutions generate the contexts capable of
  nurturing active learning strategies and of
  generating life-long learners? Teachers changing
  roles?
• How best to combine cross-national measurements
  and assessments with the national frameworks of
  educational aims and goals?
• Can e-learning catalyse a paradigm shift in
  educational organisations? And could e-learning
  help to achieve the higher order skills and
  competencies required by the learning society?

5
Can the learning society develop a more learning
inclusive paradigm than its industrial
predecessor?

• Drastically reduce the outflow of low skilled
  falling through the education system
• Empowering the at-risk adult population to become
  motivated and successful learners
• Better understanding of existing policies and of
  the key levers to effectively address the at-risk
  groups
• Carry out comparative surveys on the role and
  ways to mobilise social partners
• Establish a clearer understanding on values,
  beliefs and culture underlying education and
  training policies

6
How can Europe make the most of work related and
organisational learning?

• Complementing narrow based corporate-driven
  skills with a broader conceptual knowledge base
  accessed through broad basic education and
  balanced life-long learning opportunities
• Finding ways to measure and certify non-formally
  acquired skills and competencies
• Advancing to a European skills system encouraging
  working and learning mobility
• Improving the understanding on how innovation
  processes influence work related learning and
  organisational learning
• Summoning the employers associations to play a
  decisive role in overcoming excessively
  proprietary knowledge and achieving scale,
  particularly for SMEs training needs