Based upon the EU eLearning Conference / Learning Café: Digital Skills – July 2006

1. Career Guidance – the European Dimension Conference, ALBA 4 Nov 2006 Competences for Life & Work:How you go about from School to WorkDr Nikitas KastisPresident, MENON Network & Director, Lambrakis Foundation Based upon the EU eLearning Conference / Learning Café: Digital Skills – July 2006

2. Digital Skills for Life and Work Google search results Skills: 671,000,000 Literacy: 126,000,000 Competences: 35,000,000 Key competences: 2,610,000 (1,230,000 in Europe, 513,000 in USA, 1,960,000 Canada & Australia) Digital Literacy: 32,100,000 Media Literacy: 56,800,000 Digital Skills: 139,000,000 eSkills: 74,800 e-Competences: 35,000 Digital Skills for Life and Work Technorati search results Skills: 1,766,000 Literacy: 108,485 Competences: 2,752 Key competences: 316 Digital Literacy: 7,140 Media Literacy: 15,466 Digital Skills: 45,143 eSkills: 34 e-Competences: 10 (all related to the EDEN Conference) Competences for Life & Work:How you go about from School to WorkCareer Guidance Conference, Nov 2006

3. Competences for Life & Work:How you go about from School to WorkCareer Guidance Conference, Nov 2006 Aspects of Life

4. Competences for Life & Work:How you go about from School to WorkCareer Guidance Conference, Nov 2006 • Digital Literacy / Competence / Skills in set of Key Competences (see also OECD/ DESECO): transferable, multifunctional package of knowledge, skills, attitudes, foundation for further learning … • Communication in the Mother Tongue & Foreign Language …. the LITERACY domain • Mathematical Literacy … the NUMERACY domain • Science & Technology • Digital Literacy / Competence (ICT…) • Learning to Learn (what about??) • Interpersonal-intercultural, social competences • Civic competences • Enterpreneurship • Cultural Awareness

5. Competences for Life & Work:How you go about from School to WorkCareer Guidance Conference, Nov 2006 • 20% of School Education graduates with reading problems • 77% of age cohort (18-24 yrs) completing Higher Education • 58% European work-force never used ICT • 34% European population never used ICT • 80% European population with low-qualifications (ISCED 1 & 2) never used ICT • 50% of jobs will require high-level skills by 2010 – how come? • Multigenerational organization systems (sic!) … • Attitude(s) – capacity to change (never-ending quest for Innovation!) • In search for Excellence! Is Equity the “looser of the last mile”?

6. Competences for Life & Work:How you go about from School to WorkCareer Guidance Conference, Nov 2006 • Spending on Education increases – reaching 6.1% of GDP, OECD average -, with expenditure on staff corresponding to biggest budget heading. Thus, expenditure per student is largely influenced by teachers salaries! • Increase of expenditure per student of more than 20% between 1995 and 2002, in non-tertiary education (tertiary education prevailing pattern of change differs, due to relative expansion). • Expenditure per student rises with the education level, with secondary 1.3 times primary expenditure and tertiary reaching over 4.5 times primary, representative of the established life-cycle (long) learning paradigm.

7. Competences for Life & Work:How you go about from School to WorkCareer Guidance Conference, Nov 2006 • Some (OECD) countries considered “laggards”: 15-year-olds’ mathematical proficiency (over 25% below threshold) & problem-solving proficiency (~60% incapable of reaching threshold, only ~30% for the “protagonists”). • The group of “protagonists” (Finland, Korea, Canada, Japan, Sweden,…) present an interesting ‘school cohesion factor’, with school-results’ differences accountable to 5-17% of students’ mathematics performance variation (for “laggards” over 30%). • Not any relationship established between expenditure per student and learning performance. Results suggest that spending on education is a prerequisite of high-quality learning, but not sufficient to achieve high level outcomes. Education systems’ processes play a strong part in learning effectiveness.

8. Competences for Life & Work:How you go about from School to WorkCareer Guidance Conference, Nov 2006 • In most OECD countries, males’ employability is affected by the lack of upper secondary education (factor for social cohesion). • Sound evidence relating economic output (GDP growth) to yrs spent in education (3-6% increase corresponding to one-year increase in education). Impact on health and social cohesion remain anecdotal without reliable assessment. • Finally, learning outside classroom is (a) increasing (from 2000 to 2003) and (b) varying in both time allocated and type & quality –yet not measurable impact on learning outcomes.

9. Competences for Life & Work:How you go about from School to WorkCareer Guidance Conference, Nov 2006 • Relation between educational provision, performance and social inclusion is extremely complex. • Learning outcomes are associated with variables like motivation, self-belief and learning strategies, therefore likely to be linked to levels of social cohesion, quality and relevance of learning environment, the relationship with ‘life chances’! • Seems that cognitive & cultural factors shape how exclusion relate to identity and ‘learning’; some thinkers talking about “chronic, inherited poverty” and “exclusion inheritance…, passed over to generations”…, through education!” • Considerations give rise to ideas about emerging knowledge building patterns, with ‘exclusion’ being defined as lack of access to opportunities to realise creativity and potential; the process of knowledge formation: we are then facing a “Paradigm Shift”!

10. Competences for Life & Work:How you go about from School to WorkCareer Guidance Conference, Nov 2006 • The re-orientation of Lifelong Learning from its 1960’s focus on transition pathways to a more holistic view of learning as part of social development (both of society in general and of the individual as a social actor) • The corresponding shift in emphasis from learning as a process of reproduction to one of transformative learning • The rise to prominence of joined-up government, linking education with other key policy agendas and imperatives like employment, health and the environment • The increasing policy inter-dependence between education and social inclusion

11. Competences for Life & Work:How you go about from School to WorkCareer Guidance Conference, Nov 2006 • Paradigm shift * Consumer of Knowledge – Creator of Knowledge: from the dichotomy to the co-existence * Prevailing character of the Learning-to-Learn Competence • Calls for an integrated approach to this Competence [instead of mass delivery of “chunks of training and development of Basic ICT Skills”] • The aim needs to be: * Innovate, validate and reform the E&T systems in order to (a) cater for the increase of learning-to-learn capacity at school level (b) efficiently “compensate” for the lack of minimum competence level of adults * Embed technology familiarization in context (personal, professional) specific activities (societal setting) • The new Equity challenge: from delivering massive education to engaging people to massive knowledge experiences (up-grading their learning-to-learn competence)

12. Competences for Life & Work:How you go about from School to WorkCareer Guidance Conference, Nov 2006 Borderless & inclusive learning and “Technical Coding” What are the ‘typical’ aspects of ‘technical coding’ in the beginning of the century: • A limitless potential of on-line applications serving content creation, sharing, reusability and thus knowledge formation (from weblogging to web tagging/mashing etc.) • Set of maturing communication protocols, that could cater with interoperabilities, turning communities to knowledge networks and could seamless global coverage of regions.

13. Competences for Life & Work:How you go about from School to WorkCareer Guidance Conference, Nov 2006 Borderless & inclusive learning: Challenges What our children need to learn in order to aspire to these emerging societal paradigms? How can we change school education in order to facilitate this orientation? How can we cater with the Adults Learning needs? Dare to give some answers… * Start with School (Primary Education), decentralize, establish new Literacy paradigms, competence-based educational design, cognitive processes, sharing of learning resources and knowledge formation mechanism; * Provide with embedded (contextualized) training and career’s planning

14. Competences for Life & Work:How you go about from School to WorkCareer Guidance Conference, Nov 2006 • Sustainable Innovation: E&T contexts and knowledge building ‘patterns’ • Balanced deployment of effective up-take of ICTs in learning process: serving Equity through the search for Excellence • Joined capacity building: emerging common agendas of the stakeholders

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19. Competences for Life & Work:How you go about from School to WorkCareer Guidance Conference, Nov 2006