On 10 June 2017, the Institute for policy and society in cooperation with Friedrich Naumann Foundation held a business breakfast called Future of Professions in the 21st Century. The event was organised as a follow-up event of the conference Digital Czech Republic and its panel Education 4.0 and Impact on Labour market.  The debate focused on the connection between needs of the labour market and whether the formal education is able to train confident and skilled people for the future professions.

The panellists, our honoured guests, included H.E. Moon Seoung-hyun (Ambassador of Korea to the Czech Republic) and Mrs. Martina Dlabajová (MEP, ALDE). The meeting was moderated by Mr. Bohumil Kartous (EDUin). The event was introduced by Anthony Hennen, Content Editor of the “4LIBRTY.EU REVIEW”, who presented to the audience a new issue of 4LIBRTY.EU REVIEW publication which focuses on education. The growing numbers of populists show us that education in Hungary, Poland, also France as well as in other countries needs to be reformed naming the Nordic Education system as a benchmark within the field.

H.E Moon Seoung-hyun started by a short summary of how the educational system works in the Republic of Korea, especially how the needs of the IT industry correlate with the set-up of the educational system and the system of vocational education. For the very first time the European Union cooperates with the industries in terms of education, and together they try to create a new type of education which should among others include much more practical training in order to prepare students for the future professions in a better way.

During the discussion the need of soft skills and critical thinking training, communication skills was mentioned. Furthermore, students should also be taught how to be proactive especially in the business and entrepreneurship.

Mrs. Dlabajová also talked shortly about her project WhyNot, which provided about fifty motivational trainee-ships as well as many practical skills and thus helped to tackle unemployment. Mrs. Martina Dlabajová also stated that” It is better being happy plumber than an unhappy lawyer”.

The decreasing level of general knowledge, e.g. why these days students are worse in chemistry, maths or in knowing was also discussed. H.E Moon Seoung-hyun answered that memorizing of facts in the age of the internet is kind of useless, the new area needs to learn how to work with that information.

Future of the education will be challenged by the quickly changing industries and the reaction of the educational system has to be carefully thought out in order not create even more damage.