By bringing together politicians, civil society, VET experts and small and medium enterprises, this 23rd edition of EVBB International Conference wants to break down artificial barriers and pave the way to a new strategic partnership for the future of education. In times of uncertainty, co-creation and co-responsibility are the key words that inspire and lead our way to change the VET landscape within the European Union and beyond.

Since its establishment in 1992, EVBB has been strongly advocating for bringing education to the forefront of the fundamental reform in the economy and the society our times are calling for. A radical shift in the way of thinking and conceiving the educational system is required if we want to overcome the material and cultural obstacles on the way of the new human era that globalisation and digitalisation have the potential to bring about. If we want to meet the challenge, we cannot but recognise the role of all relevant stakeholders who need to be involved and proactively participate in the process of redesigning the educational model within the scope of a more open, smart and cooperative 21st-century world.

To this end, the role of civil society organisations and the enterprises is crucial, not replaceable and not delegable. In a world where internet and the new technologies virtually provide everyone with an unprecedented potential for action and empowerment, the question on whether and how it is possible to train people to be ethical subjects and active citizens is an essential one which remains fundamentally open and unaddressed. The school system, alone, cannot provide the required answers and needs to adjust itself to the transformation processes our societies face in a digitalised world. It needs to call for a strong cooperation with civil society actors, local communities, international organisations, and society as a whole.

The organisations representing civil society are a major player in the process of advancing democracy within a genuine bottom-up approach, turning it from a project on paper to an actual and vital reality. Since civil society organisations represent in themselves a vector and a laboratory of democratisation, the educational system should draw on their experience, tune to their practice of commitment, and bring the students into their projects and initiatives. Civically engaged actors particularly play a vital role in anticipating societal challenges, raising awareness on current problems, detecting impending risks and driving positive and constructive developments. Their task is especially important in times of intensive change, when foreseeing what is going to happen before it happens becomes a vital and critical necessity. Climate change, sustainable energy development and social solidarity are some of the most burning issues that have been discussed within civil society’s organisations for years by now, but that still need to be adequately addressed through agreed upon strategies and genuinely shared efforts. To this end, it is crucial to build up a strong dialogue and log-term patterns of cooperation where the voice and role of each social actor and political authority is duly recognised, valued, harmonised and coordinated with the voices and roles of the others, and finally channelled into common action.

Family businesses, micro-enterprises, self-employers and small and medium companies also play a pivotal role in the renovation of the educational system that is required by the present and future digitalised and globalised world. Not only because their cooperation with VET providers and educational institutes is a conditio sine qua non to mainstream work-based learning within a dual system approach and beyond, but also because entrepreneurial skills are going to gain more and more relevance in the curricula of all-grade and all-orientation educational pathways. In this perspective, entrepreneurs have both a lot to teach and a lot to gain from a stronger partnership with VET providers and the educational system in general. On the one hand, family enterprises and small business offer the perfect working setting where students can gain and hone their vocational, relational and practical skills while participating in the actual reality of job and production and benefitting of tutoring and supervision. On the other hand, a stronger and more structural cooperation with VET providers is the only possible way, for the business world, to effectively cure the long-lasting and dramatic shortage in skilled workers it suffers from. As employers, entrepreneurs are the most entitled to teach their potential employees how to do their job. By getting involved in training and education, small and medium enterprises would make a social investment, enhance their image before the general public, gain socio-political ground to play on with a view to seeding their values in mainstream culture. In spite of their denomination, small businesses play a gigantic role in Europe’s socio-economic fabric, constituting over 90% of the overall entrepreneurial sector and representing the backbone of European economy´s values and dynamism.

CHALLENGE 1

Democratise and integrate holistic education
within a smart 21st-century ecosystem

Automatization and robotization are changing the identikit of the labour force and the work environments. Increasingly sophisticated machines flank or replace human labour, making the traditional workman either outdated or unnecessary. Hard competition, pressure to succeed, non-acceptance of failure are no longer essential prerequisites for forging ahead with one’s educational path and career. Today, we rather need to turn to creativity and solidarity within a more cooperative and meaningful approach to learning. Still, they are strongly encouraged within the current educational model.

The present-day school system is fashioned on the 19th-century industrial economy’s need to turn people into working machines and bend their personality to the job market´s demands. In the Industry 4.0 era, however, factory workers are not so much needed as creativity, vision and capacity for innovation. Along the same lines, hierarchisation between VET and higher education and the isolation of the school from the outside, actual world, is another feature of the current educational system which is not only anachronous but also detrimental to the flourishing of a new economy and a new society.

We need to change our overall approach to education, and we need to do it right now: otherwise entire generations will be lost, condemned to unemployment, material and spiritual impoverishment, lack of vision and perspectives, loss of their cultural roots and right to write their future.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Present times call for educational hubs connected with different socio-economic actors and capable to nourish and nature a culture of cooperation, equality, co-creation. No relevant social actor of the civil society and the economy can be left out from participating to the design and implementation of a smart 21st-centry educational model. What we call for here is a transition from an ego-system to an eco-system of education. The European Union has started to invest in this much needed shift by launching a programme on smart specialisation. While embarking on this pathway of change, we need to keep in mind that education is not just about school and the job market. Rather, it permeates every dimension of the economy and society. What we teach our children and how we do so determine what and how they will build their future. If their freedom to discover and nourish their talents is prioritised along with their emotional, intellectual and spiritual wellbeing, they will fulfil their genuine potential and give their best possible contribution to the economy and society. By contrast, if their choices are dictated or heavily influenced by economic concerns and social status, they would hardly find their proper place in the world and hardly build the world as their proper place. We therefore advocate for an educational system where every study and every perspective career enjoy equal dignity and power of attractiveness. Each person should get the right opportunities to nurture their talents and change or upgrade their professional choices at any moment of their life.

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