A successful career begins with informal education

The world of education is in a bit of a pickle today. To quote the British educator Sir Ken Robinson: “How do we educate people today to live and work in the economy in 20, 30 years, when we do not know what the economy will look like at the end of next week?” Influenced by demographics, globalization, and technological progress, our workplaces are presently undergoing a rapid change. Today, people in their 20s must accept that they will change not only their jobs, but also their professions, several times during their career. At the same time, youth unemployment in the EU is decreasing so the challenge is not finding any job, but a high quality, rewarding one. Young university graduates enter the workplace well prepared in terms of theoretical knowledge, IT skills and a good command of English, but they often lack communication skills and the flexibility so greatly desired by employers. That is why it is so important that their professional portfolio is a collage of diverse experiences, professional roles, responsibilities, but most of all – competences.

It has become evident that formal education alone is not able to satisfy the skills demand and that non-formal and informal education play an equal role in providing young people with new types of skills, adjusted to new types of jobs, that require more often the ability to cooperate in a multilingual and multi-cultural team, with creativity, initiative and the ability to communicate effectively.