Education is valuable. Students come from all age groups now. Both the labour market and the world of education are actively discussing adult learning, employers often use the phrase “looking for skills” and people are more confident when it comes to changing careers. OSKA’s workforce and skills forecasts suggest that in the future, workers need to be prepared for continuous self-improvement.

At the Qualifications Authority’s international conference, we invite you to pause for a moment, take a hard look into the boom of lifelong learning and consider some critical questions. Why are we constantly learning and developing, and what purpose does it serve? Where can a person get support in making life-changing decisions? How should skills be assessed?

19 September ``Making use of your skills``

A large chunk of the skills we acquire throughout our life get left in the shadows once we finish our studies. Can we start using them effectively and how? How can our skills be harnessed in such a way that we, the organisation and the country all gain from it? Is all learning actually useful, and does “collecting skills” bring us closer to our goals? How is lifelong learning affected by AI? In the panels on the first day, we will discuss why Estonia, which is at the forefront of PISA tests, is in the middle of the global economy, how skill taxonomies have contributed to a better understanding of what to learn, and how artificial intelligence forces us to develop fundamental skills such as critical thinking, communication, or creative thinking.

The paradox of lifelong learning: if we learn in order to have a good life, does lifelong learning mean that the good life never comes?

See the exact schedule

The keynote speaker is Matt Sigelman

Matt Sigelman is President of The Burning Glass Institute and a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. The Burning Glass Institute advances data-driven research and practice on the future of work and the future of learning. Previously, Matt was CEO of KKR-backed Lightcast, the global authority on the talent market. Matt holds an AB from Princeton, an MBA from Harvard, and is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations

20 September ``Evaluating skills``

The keynote speaker is Johanna Rämö

Johanna Rämö is a university lecturer in mathematics in the University of Eastern Finland. She develops and studies innovative teaching methods, with an aim to disrupt hierarchies in education. Her work includes the student-centred Extreme Apprenticeship method and the digital self-assessment model DISA, both of which have been found to improve quality of student learning in higher education.

According to modern learning concepts, a poorly prepared evaluation procedure has a negative impact on a person’s self-esteem, motivation to learn, will to perform well and to put in effort. In addition, the objectivity of evaluating is often questioned, especially in the case of self-evaluation. Both learners and workers, including people applying to vocational education, tend to over- or underestimate their own abilities. How can we design better evaluation systems where all parties understand the value of evaluation and there is no gap between perceived reality and wishful thinking? In the first panel, we will discuss how to create good assessment situations to get a comprehensive understanding of the learner’s knowledge and skills. The second panel is dedicated to the skill of self-assessment – the learner’s ability to better understand their learning journey and the external assessor’s ability to identify opportunities for supporting the learner early on.

The paradox of lifelong learning: we spend our whole lives learning in order to become experts – is being an expert like the horizon, always out of reach?

See the exact schedule