We then continued the reflection that started on 1 June last year at the Slovenian opening event of the EYS or the 27th Adult Education Colloquium. We gathered the highlights from that event in a video, which provided an excellent foundation for this meeting.
European Year of Skills is officially concluding, but challenges remain
To all participants, I wish you much inspiration from today’s event, and may you give it wings in your institutions.
Representatives from both ministries – the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities and the Ministry of Education – confirmed that both ministries are paying significant attention to measures for developing skills – both for work and life in general. Although addressing the challenge in an intersectoral manner has gained momentum with the EYS initiative, it remains ongoing.
The regulation of learning and education is linked to numerous other sectors and areas.
The Director of the SIAE emphasised that we are also addressing skills issues in our institution by developing educational programmes and support activities for this purpose. However, we are aware that we can only achieve significant progress in our work in collaboration with other stakeholders.
The potential lies in connecting awareness of lifelong learning with charity, which is well-developed in Slovenia.
The event marked a new cycle of EAAL Forums
Memories of the EAAL Forums 2022-2023, where we discussed the eight skills for life, are still relatively fresh. These were initially addressed individually, then increasingly in a more integrated way, with the growing realisation that a holistic approach and synergies are needed at all levels. This time, we showcased a video with highlights from these forums.
Building and using bridges between sectors, disciplines, the present, and the future will be vital to creating and seizing new opportunities while ensuring the well-being of every person, community and planet.
The event should serve as a mirror, reflecting how we are collaborating in our efforts in the EYS.
Also important are the EAAL Forums 2021, which addressed the six socio-economic trends and the role of adult learning. The video on BIC Ljubljana, which was produced for the Forum on the Future of Work and Skills at the time and was shown again this time, remains very relevant and represents an exemplary case of Slovenian practice.
We need to work from the top down and from the bottom up, and we need to develop skills for life.
In the central part of the Forum, we listened with interest to two expert contributions. The first concerned the importance of measuring adult skills and referred to the PIAAC survey, while the second dealt with forecasting labour market needs and the presentation of the Labour Market Platform. Both aim to help us navigate the broad field of skills and chart paths forward – for individuals and more broadly.
The Labour Market Platform will enable the matching of job seekers’ competencies with job offers.
Awareness-raising for lifelong learning is essential
A prerequisite for a culture where learning, knowledge and skills in the broadest sense are values and drivers of development is the appropriate awareness of every individual and community. We have therefore also dedicated the Forum to the launch of a ground-breaking campaign, Awareness-raising for Lifelong Learning, based on experiences gained in nearly three decades of implementing the LLW. The new campaign is being launched at the SIAE with the support of European cohesion funds this year and will be implemented with a vast network of partners until 2028.
In the Awareness-raising for Lifelong Learning campaign, we aim to strengthen general awareness of the importance of learning.
Acquiring and continuously upgrading skills is a lifelong process that touches all dimensions of our (co)existence and (should) lead to well-being, but more importantly, to thriving and proactively responding to constant change – in nature and the world we create as humanity. How are we approaching this?
We discussed this in the closing panel titled Skills in Synergy. In the first round, four participants introduced themselves by answering questions about what their particularly strong skill was, why, and how they acquired it. They then presented their missions and areas of work. We talked about the interconnection of skills and how this is reflected in their lives and work. We concluded with the question of which skill they do not yet have but would like to acquire. The lively exchange among these exceptional individuals is definitely worth watching in person!
The right mindset is: I still have a lot to learn.
Educational programmes are a reflection of the heart and cohesion of the local environment.
The art is to convey the peace of the forest to the people. The forest is a feeling and love.
I wonder how we will become a more likeable society. Will technology help us to do this?
Recordings of the individual presentations and the entire event (in Slovenian) are available on the EAAL Forum website. The event attracted 155 participants, of whom 73 attended in person at the House of the EU, 63 online (via Zoom) and 30 via livestream. Ninety people subsequently viewed the recordings.
Zvonka Pangerc Pahernik, MSc (zvonka.pangerc@acs.si), SIAE, edited by Ana Peklenik (ana.peklenik@acs.si), both from the SIAE
