In wealthy countries, the rule has till now been simple: get formal education at an early stage in life and for the rest of your career you are all set. With technological change accelerating, things are getting more complicated. Even employers don’t know what skillsets their employees will need in the future. What is clear is that learning and education are central to this change process and need to be rethought. All of us have to stay up to date with latest technological developments and never stop learning.

digitalswitzerland wants to take responsibility and be part of the conversation on how to shape education and lifelong learning in Switzerland. This is why together with the SVEB/FSEA (Swiss Federation for Adult Learning), the Swiss national umbrella organisation for adult education, we have created an event called digital#lifelonglearning, a programme that aims to present new technologies in adult learning. Participants will understand the evolving stakes in lifelong learning, the changes that are being effected in learning technologies, and the advances in lifelong learning approaches that these technologies offer.

digital#lifelong learning

On November 27, 2018, digitalswitzerland and the SVEB/FSEA are organising an afternoon event dedicated to digital#lifelong learning at the Paul Klee Museum in Bern. This first edition of the course targets C-suite, Human Resource (HR) and Learning&Development (L&D) professionals. The event will be a mix of plenary and hands-on sessions with exciting new technologies.

Still a gap in 35-65 year olds’ lifelong education

Formal education covers education and training in national and private schools, universities and colleges. Non-formal education and training includes all taught learning activities which are not part of a formal education programme. Switzerland is singularly well endowed with its apprenticeship and federal vocational exam system. Currently 62% of the population aged 15-75 have attended at least one lifelong learning course. 71% of paid employees followed a course of some kind. However, it is the 25-34 year olds which are the most motivated, with a participation rate of 76%. This means that the 35-65 year olds still have a long way to go and lifelong learning has to move up on the Swiss education agenda.

The Swiss Confederation published its updated plan for Education, Research and Innovation (ERI) in July this year, which states that Switzerland wishes to maintain its leadership in international ERI rankings. “The actors in the field of education, research and innovation must take the measure of their role as digital agents, strengthen their position, raise awareness in society at large and the economy, promote digitalisation and make them able to exploit the dynamic of innovation that digitalisation enables” (Federal Council International ERI Strategy, July 2018). We all have a part to play in pushing this agenda forward.

Save the date

The programme is limited to 120 people. Please save the date now to make sure you can attend! For more information and the programme, please see here. To remain informed on what digitalswitzerland does, remember to sign up to our newsletter!