Self-making: Lifelong Education.Thematic Session at the Third Eurasian Women's Forum
The participants discussed how to motivate educational institutions to proactively respond to changing needs of the labor market, what factors increase the participation of working women in continuing education, and how to collect statistics on obtaining additional education for subsequent analysis. The director of the Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Center Maria Nagernyak and the leading expert at the Head Office of the Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Center Olga Voron attended the session.
The Director of the regional office of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) for Europe and Central Asia, Khan Afshan, devoted her speech to the prospects for increasing equality and self-realization of women in the labor market. She suggested that universities develop programs that would be able to help girls and women get secondary and higher education. At the same time, men should be more involved in family and everyday life in order to give women the opportunity for self-realization.
Yanina Novitskaya, CEO of Cartier Russia and CIS, said that Cartier pays great attention to gender equality — for example, there are no differences in the salaries of men and women in the company. In addition, Cartier invites educational institutions to conduct workshops for employees, including on the topic of feminism.
Valeria Paliy, Director of Mars Food in Russia, noted that success is associated with continuous training. She also mentioned the tools that the company used for the education and development of its employees — each of them had their own personal development plan. According to her, training consists of obtaining new knowledge in the process of work, from colleagues and mentors, as well as from corporate educational programs.
Zhang Jada, CEO of Mulan Group, discussed the methods aimed to help women realize themselves in the labor market. She stressed that the company works with migrant women, helps them find jobs and integrate into society. Zhang Jada added that lifelong learning is a powerful tool for changing society.
Deputy Director of the Institute of Leadership and Health Management in the Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University Victoria Madyanova spoke about continuing education in the medical field. She believes that educational organizations should develop interesting programs and keep up with the times, cooperate with business and the media.
Olga Postnikova, CEO of the NGO Center for Social Assistance ‘Dobroye Delo’, noted that the social sphere clearly reflects the general trends in changing the need for education, development, and acquisition of new skills. She added that today, classical education must necessarily be supplemented with meta-competencies.
Daria Veledeeva, editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar magazine, discussed the changes in the media industry. According to her, today people want to invest in self-education more than in anything else. The media quickly reacts to these changes: now glossy magazines write not only about stars and fashion, but also about social topics and self-development.
Victoria Arabina, partner and co-founder of the Venn Technology Projects Aggregator, dedicated her speech to continuing education. She noted that in some technological fields, women are still more often hired only for specialties related to marketing, communications and PR. Therefore, it is important to change the education system and give women the opportunity to implement it in technological specialties.
Tigran Shmis, Coordinator of programs in the field of human capital, senior specialist in the field of education of the World Bank, moderated the discussion. In conclusion, he noted that soft-skills, the ability to learn and retrain are more important today. In addition, the interaction of business and education is important. He summed up that for competitiveness, entrepreneurs need to be aware of the international agenda, participate in forums and other events.
The video recording is available via the link