European View on Formal Education and Training in 2020-2030

Future School Education: In 2025, schools will remain the main providers of learning opportunities for the young generation. The existing, physical and formal structures of school education, including standardised degrees and testing procedures, are expected to remain intact. However, schools will have changed significantly with respect to pedagogical strategies. On the one hand, learning and teaching processes will have become more flexible in addressing and implementing individual needs and preferences. On the other hand, schools as institutions will have started to integrate external learning resources and practical learning opportunities. Technology is considered to be a facilitator for both of these strands, driving change.

Teachers and Trainers: Personalised learning strategies and increased institutional flexibility, transparency and openness will go hand in hand with a change in teaching practice. There is strong consensus among experts that the teacher role is changing and in the future teacher will be mentors and guides, while learning processes will become self-regulated, personalised and collaborative. However, it is underlined that teachers will actively engage in learning processes and will remain vital actors. They will not be replaced by ICT, nor will they become external observers or coordinators of the learning process.

Early School Leaving: Experts believe that early school leaving can most effectively be prevented by following personalised learning strategies and integrating real life experiences in school education. For those who do drop out, there will be more learning opportunities than today, possibly supported by technological innovation and by mechanisms supporting the recognition of informally acquired skills.

Inclusion and social integration of migrant children: On the whole, experts are optimistic as concerns the capacity of school education to integrate migrant children, to implement multicultural learning and teaching strategies and to better assist migrant children in the acquisition of the language of the host country. Technology is seen as a key factor in facilitating language acquisition and helping children develop their identity at the crossroads of two languages and cultures.

Future Training Strategies for Employment and Career Development

Entering the labour market: Experts coincide that, in the future, the current gap between formally acquired skills and competences and labour market needs will not disappear - on the contrary, it will widen. However, they expect that both education and training institutions and the labour market will have started reacting to the increasing discrepancies. Education and training institutions will have to enter into dialogue with industry and adapt curricula and syllabi accordingly, and the labour market will consider implementing its own testing and training schemes. However, given the increasing dynamics of international markets, neither strategy will manage to completely close the gap.

Re-entering the labour market: Experts believe that, in the future more and more often people will want to (or need to) enter job fields without possessing relevant formal qualifications. They emphasise that, to respond to this trend, informally acquired skills and non-professional experiences will have to be recognised. While formal qualifications will remain important, practical skills training, whether or not connected to a degree, will be more important to prepare people for a entering into a new job field.

Re-skilling those who have low qualifications: Experts agree that people with low qualifications will continue to face difficulties in finding and maintaining employment. While attaining formal qualifications will remain vital for grasping new employment opportunities, informally acquired skills will be better recognised and mechanisms will be put in place that will allow people to obtain formal recognition for their professional expertise.

Re-skilling later in life: Experts expect that, in the future, all European citizens, including those with high skills, will have to face up to the fact that their expertise could become obsolete and that they might have to start a completely new career late in their professional lives. It is similarly uncontroversial that, in reaction to the increased flexibility of industry and labour market, there will be a variety of opportunities for re-skilling and changing professional profiles. However, opinions diverge on whether practical training alone, without formal qualifications, will be a viable option. Experts are equally divided on the question of whether older workers will face difficulties in re-qualifying for a new job, although a very high minority objects to this supposition.

Career development and professional relationships: What stands out from the expert feedback is the strong belief and expectation that, in the future, professional relationships will change: hierarchies will flatten, an open approach between older and younger workers will prevail and training needs will be openly and collaboratively addressed. In parallel to this process, privileges and benefits currently associated with seniority and experience will be challenged. Competences will become a more important criterion for promotion than seniority.

(Extracted on 02 May 2012 from: http://dspace.ou.nl/bitstream/1820/2991/1/The%20Future%20of%20Learning%20-%20New%20Ways%20to%20Learn%20New%20Skills%20for%20Future%20Jobs%20-%20Results%20from%20an%20online%20expert%20consultation.pdf)© European Communities, 2010