digitalswitzerland and SVEB/FSEA have joined forces to create an afternoon event dedicated to digital#lifelong learning at the Paul Klee Museum in Bern on November 27, 2018. The conference will provide an overview of the digital transformation of the world of work, including an exploration of what this means for lifelong learning. The programme is based on research results on this impact, information on the daily life of digitalised companies, and a practical hands-on part. Participants will have the opportunity to try new technologies in the context of virtual training environments and 3D collaborative platforms. They will see a robot working as a teacher and learn more about artificial intelligence, simulation and digital recruitment tools.

A lot of talk but little understanding

There is a lot of talk about the new technologies – how they are changing the workplace, what the impact will be both short- and long-term – as well as a lot of fear. While technology is exciting, it does not stand alone; humans also have their role to play, whether in soft skills or in social interactions, hence the importance of lifelong learning. Indeed, underlying all work is learning: learning first in schools then at work, on the job and in class, online.

When in 1997 Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in a chess game and 19 years later AlphaGo beat Lee Sedol at the strategic game of go, it showed that machine intelligence could outrank programmers’ knowledge. The whole discussion about The Singularity (The Singularity is the hypothetical future creation of superintelligent machines. Superintelligence is defined as a technologically-created cognitive capacity far beyond that possible for humans) is a raging debate that no one can currently answer.

Notwithstanding, the whole point of the 27 November event is to help  C-suite and Learning and Development professionals approach these technologies in a fun and interactive way, thus enhancing curiosity and hopefully more learning in these areas.

And what about education and lifelong learning in all of this?

According to the EDK/CIDP, in the labour market, digitalisation and thus automation has become more widespread in the last twenty years, but according to the 2018 education report it is currently difficult to make forecasts regarding the scope and, above all, the speed with which these processes will impact the future. The process of tertiarization is likely to continue in Switzerland, even if less aggressively. According to FSO forecasts, by 2045 around 60% of the population will have a tertiary level education (university or higher vocational education) compared to around 40% in 2015.

The announcement this September that “the Federal Council wants Switzerland to exploit the opportunities of digitalisation to the full” includes the area of education and, hopefully, lifelong education. Everyone needs to be taken along in the learning curve, so that no one is left behind. Thus we encourage you to come and discover our event.

Sign up now! 

The programme is limited to 120 people. Please sign up 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!