I'd like to thank URL and the university
for organizing this lecture.
So I give the floor back to Arne
to conclude this lecture.
How can lifelong learning
be seen as a response to global challenges?
One way could be to look through the lenses
as did the Director General of UNESCO
of lifelong learning as a philosophy.
And this vision, this way of looking,
this approach is very much based
on the first global report on learning,
the 1972 report of Edgar Ford and his team.
It stems originally from a utopian point of view
that learning should be available everywhere,
all spheres of life, workplace, school, and so on.
And this is one way of approaching lifelong learning,
creating a philosophy.
It's a lens through which you can give responses
to some of the new global challenges.
Another way could be to develop lifelong learning,
building on principles, which was very much,
which was promoted from Susie Halimi.
Lifelong learning is a set of principles
and for creating conditions for humans
to unfold their full potential in the future.
We should build and respect these principles.
It can be a principle for communication
if we do not respect the principles for meaningful dialogue.
We cannot have the dialogue and so on.
There's also a way today to look at lifelong learning
at the policy level.
And I think this is, was what we also saw unfolding
from the African perspective.
Lifelong learning is a reality at the political level
also today in Africa.
It is not only basic education.
It is not synonymous to literacy.
Africa is today moving from, I would say,
from literacy to lifelong learning.
Through these different systemic approaches
to lifelong learning as a response to new global conditions,
I would like to look at two.
One is TVET.
Technical vocational education and training today
is now moving towards lifelong learning.
Last week UNESCO organized,
together with the Chinese government in Shanghai,
the World Congress on TVET.
It organizes this Congress every ten years.
And the outcome report pointed to moving
over the next ten years TVET towards a system
where it's not the second choice
after higher education or theoretical education.
It is an attractive learning system
where you link with higher education,
you link also across so that learning can be appreciated also
with this more from the beginning practical perspective
but then also giving access to linking
with higher theoretical perspectives.
Another one is higher education.
Many, many universities today try to see a new role
in relation to lifelong learning.
With social responsibility,
with offering short-term courses to the local community
or national or regional community,
upgrading skills and competences for also skilled workers
but of course also of employees
and private in at a higher level.
From a UIL side I can say we are trying in the future
to respond to different ways of approaching lifelong learning
and responding to global challenges
by also looking at the global opportunities.
And we are going to do this through a number of,
I can say, functions which are related to UNESCO functions.
One is as a laboratory of ideas.
I think one of the ways of approaching
the new global challenges,
that is to develop new ideas about how to tackle them.
So it's a function of a laboratory of ideas.
The second one is the function as a standard setter.
UIL has just published the UNESCO guidelines
for recognition, validation and accreditation
of the outcomes of non-formal and informal learning.
And this document I hope will have a function
as a standard setter.
It's very much to support member states in developing systems
for recognizing non-formal and informal learning.
Third one is as a clearing house.
We need to have research that can much better take
from all the big massive research we have in the world,
take the relevant research, the high quality research,
and relate it to practical measures.
We can also say we will go the way of action,
research of collating other research institutions,
research work, so that we can compile it.
We can never be, I think, a mode one research institute
because we are policy driven, we are practice driven,
and we are not having a mode one research agenda.
But we will function and we do as a clearing house
trying to collate the best possible, most relevant research results
so that the technical advice we can give to governments
will be based or will be evidence based, will be research based.
The fourth function is as a disseminator of knowledge.
I think there are so many good practice examples
that can be showcased from countries all over the world today
and that can help at the practical level for development
of new policies dealing with lifelong learning,
dealing as an important part of lifelong learning literacy,
which we consider to be the foundation of lifelong learning
and dealing with adult education, which we see as the major part
of lifelong learning.
I think the challenges in the future for many countries
will be to try to see the linkages, the lifelong learning systems
will also consist of linkages between the different sectors
so we will have a more sector wide system.
It will be a system I hope that could also link
between formal, non-formal and informal learning.
I think it's becoming increasingly clear for most countries
that no matter how rich a country is,
it can never afford to create a formal education system
that can respond to all the learning needs there is in that society.
It is not possible.
Therefore, there is no way out from linking formal, non-formal
and informal approaches in a learning system
that includes also the education system.
Finally, developing partnerships.
I think responding to global challenges calls for new partnerships
with many partners that would not have been considered as partners previously
but developing new partnerships I think exactly can only build
on a kind of new trust or confidence.
It is difficult I think in many areas to develop trust or confidence
because if you first trust and you are deceived, you are not next time
so eager to trust again.
But also here in this case I think there is no way out
and I think as part of a new humanism,
one of the pillars here is trust or confidence.
We are growing I think in the whole world today from rhetoric to action.
We see what we could call a new renaissance,
a new combination of theory with practice of the work of the head
to the work of the hand.
So I would say that the work of the hand,
the work of practice is being re-valorized, is getting a higher value
at the same time as we see a bigger need for value-based education
and learning systems.
In a conference in Pabesk, the Minister of Education started by showing a video
with horrors from Second World War, from the Civil War in Spain
and then she said, how come that these things were done by some of our people
who had some of the best education in the world?
We need to build new education systems that are value-based
and it will build peace in the minds of women and of men.
So I'd like to conclude with this.
The cornerstones, I think, in lifelong learning education
and learning systems will need to reflect the value base.
Part of the value base, you will know it,
part of it is the gender equality issue.
Part of it is of course also including the third age learning
and part of it as well will be what kind of values
can be built into TVET, into higher education
that could maybe be shared by many countries.
I agree here with Susie, kind of global humanism
not centered towards any of the regions in the world
is maybe a framework, value-based framework that can be part of measures
where it will not solely be the concern for social development that will drive us.
It will not solely be our concern for economical growth and development
but we could maybe come to a situation where it could be our values
who would be the guiding principles for socio-economic development.
And with this, I'd like to conclude to thank the host for our anniversary event.
The university, the pre-enhancy city of Hamburg,
we are very fortunate to have this intensified cooperation with the university.
One of the examples is that we are celebrating here today.
Another concrete example is that tomorrow we will have a joint workshop in the university guesthouse
on the role of higher education in lifelong learning.
So thank you to all of you for coming here
and also thank you to our host, the University of Hamburg.