The development of technology and the reduction of the life cycle of professions have led to the obsolescence of the classical model of education “school-university”. It was replaced by the concept of lifelong learning – lifelong learning
About the Author: Ekaterina Latypova is the head of the department for working with teachers of the Uchi.ru platform.
About 20“Thirty years ago, having received a profession, one could plan one’s career and be sure that nothing would change in it in the coming years. Today, this situation is almost impossible: not only entire specialties are becoming a thing of the past – the structure of the professions themselves is changing at a tremendous speed.
For example, let’s imagine an Internet marketer who does not follow new promotion tools and site algorithms – he will very quickly lose his market demand. The same applies to a coder who decides to use one framework all his life. This trend affects not only digital and IT specialties: teachers need to master new educational services, sales managers need to monitor changes in the industry and improve communication skills, cosmetologists need to be aware of all products and skin care products.
Doctors, engineers, architects, managers – almost any specialist has to regularly “upgrade” their own competencies, otherwise they risk “falling out” of the market.
Often a situation arises when the knowledge acquired by a student at a university loses its relevance by the time it graduates. That is why education does not end with obtaining a diploma: the lifelong learning model comes to the fore – learning throughout life.
Going online
The main impetus for the development of lifelong learning was given by online education. It was it that made it easy to combine study with work and engage in a convenient schedule.
Some of the first high-quality distance learning programs were shaped into Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in videotape format. Such programs, in particular, are offered by Coursera, one of the most famous projects in the world in this area, the cost of which last year exceeded $1 billion.
The most popular online learning platforms in our country.
Thanks to the development of technology, the possibilities of distance learning have advanced significantly: artificial intelligence adapts tasks to the needs and characteristics of each student, and automated systems check homework.
In our country, online training in digital and IT professions, management skills and foreign languages is in demand. Such services are offered, for example, by the Skillbox online university, the Netology University of Internet professions, the Skyeng English language school, and the Geekbrains university for developers. Their success can be judged by the numbers: almost 100 students have graduated from the courses of the first three companies, and the number of users registered on the Geekbrains portal exceeds 4 million. The certificates issued by such companies are already evaluated by many employers at the level of a university diploma.
From birth to university
Lifelong learning does not only mean continuing education after high school: education begins in early childhood. For example, one of the “unicorns” in the global EdTech market, Age of Learning, offers educational and educational games for preschoolers. Many parents enroll their children in additional courses. In the Russian segment, platforms are actively developing for mastering school subjects (Foxford, MAXIMUM Education, Uchi.ru) and subjects that go beyond the classical program, for example, programming (Algorithmika and Uchi.ru) or in-depth study languages (Skyeng).
As for universities, in the near future their task may change: instead of teaching some specialty, they will provide skills for searching and processing information, creative thinking, project work and presentation of their ideas.
Responsibilities for training specific professions will shift to online educational projects that are more flexible and more able to adapt to the ever-changing market landscape. The loss of employers’ interest in a university diploma is already noticeable: for example, according to VTsIOM, in 2019, 47% of our countries did not work in their specialty, and the Superjob portal removed the “Education” column from the questionnaires last year.
In a rapidly changing world, the so-called “flexible” skills, or soft skills, play a key role – the ability to negotiate, organize teamwork, manage your time, and find non-standard solutions. Emotional intelligence, media literacy, the ability to learn, creativity and other qualities were named the skills of the future in the Global Education Futures and WorldSkills Russia report. There are various educational courses to develop such competencies. The Wikium project makes programs for users to train memory, attention and improve brain performance. A course for schoolchildren on the ability to set goals and achieve them is available on the Uchi.ru platform. In addition, many trainings and seminars are devoted to the development of soft skills.
Quality issue
The main argument of the opponents of online education concerns its quality and the need to test the acquired knowledge. Indeed, the effectiveness of distance learning largely depends on the involvement and degree of responsibility of the student. But more and more companies are testing graduates in the form of graduation projects or final testing. Such work is usually based on the solution of real problems, and together with the certificate of completion of the course, it can serve as an indicator of the competence of a specialist for the employer.
Of course, a certificate of online education in itself, like a university “crust”, will never guarantee employment. The candidate’s presentation at the interview, his portfolio, work experience and test task will always be of paramount importance.
Pandemic as stimulus
The situation in which the world found itself due to the spread of the coronavirus has become a catalyst for the development of the lifelong learning model. In quarantine, people have more free time to educate themselves. The popularization of online courses is helped by the fact that many projects have opened free access to their resources during the pandemic: this was done earlier by Coursera, in our country by Skyeng, Geekbrains, Skillbox, Foxford online school. Uchi.ru has developed new free projects related to the transition of schools to a remote format.
In order to transfer educational institutions to a remote format, the state had to hastily create an infrastructure for organizing the process. It, as well as the experience gained from working remotely, will continue after the end of the epidemic, which will lead to an increase in the share of online education. And this, in turn, will contribute to the spread of the principle of continuous improvement of their knowledge and skills.
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