If Montenegro wants to keep up with highly developed economies, it needs speed, quality and efficiency, as well as a culture of predicting knowledge, skills and competencies, believes Gordana Bošković, Head of PR and Marketing at the Union of Employers (UPCG).
In the TalkUP podcast on the topic of Lifelong Learning - the Key to Sustainability and Competitiveness of the Economy, she said that, above all, a dialogue between the educational and real sectors is needed.
"A strong education system means a strong economy, and a culture of lifelong learning is the key to preserving the workforce," Bošković said.
According to her, when it comes to the labor market, she pointed out, it is necessary to talk about two different aspects. One is the labor market, and the other is just the knowledge market, reports PR Center.
"And in that context, we are talking about the balance of human capital. To what extent does Montenegro have human capital and how is it trying to solve this chronic problem of the lack of human capital, the best answers can be found in the education system. What definitely functions as a system of interconnected courts is the strength of the economy on the one hand and the strength of the education system on the other," Bošković stated.
All highly developed and economically strong countries have, as she said, strong educational systems.
"A strong education system equals a strong economy and vice versa. Does Montenegro have a chronic problem of labor shortage? It does. Whether and how we will solve this problem depends on the strategic directions of development, on the policies themselves, on the policymakers," said Bošković.
She said that the average age of a Montenegrin citizen is almost 40 years old and that Montenegro has around 125 thousand pensioners, which means that by 2030, there is a danger at the global level that the number of people over 65 will exceed the number of young people.
"We see that we are losing human capital in terms of full productivity and full strength. Montenegro must not allow the loss of its workforce. We must create a culture of dialogue between the institutions of the system and the economy. We must create a culture of lifelong learning. It is precisely in this culture that the key to preserving the workforce lies," Bošković stated.
She added that special attention must be paid to the category of young people under 29 years of age, who are no longer included in the education system, the labor market, or in any form of training or additional education.
"According to some data, we have about 30 percent, and according to some research, as many as 50 percent of young people who are not included in the labor market. I think this is a pressing problem for Montenegro, which must be solved in a symbiosis of the economy and the public sector," said Bošković.
According to her, the concept of lifelong learning is an ideal that every country strives for. It is not something that is easily achievable, but rather represents the culture of living of a society, the responsibility of the state towards its economy, its citizens and towards itself.
"All highly developed countries have invested heavily in the concept of lifelong learning. If we mention China and Japan, we will see that they established a culture of lifelong learning as early as the mid-19th century. When it comes to Europe, we must mention the Scandinavian countries. Sweden is the country with the highest percentage of adult participation in the concept of lifelong learning. If we talk about the annual percentage of participation, we will see that Sweden participates in the lifelong learning process with 74 percent. The country that closely follows the Scandinavian countries is the Netherlands. It is a highly developed country and its percentage of participation in the lifelong learning process is around 65 percent," said Bošković.
She said that there is some data on how many citizens of Montenegro are involved in the lifelong learning process and it is obtained based on the report on the implementation of the annual adult education plan.
"But, although this is official data, it is not complete, because not all institutions, all actors, all stakeholders, participate in defining the figure itself and very often we are at a single-digit number," said Bošković.
She stated that the modern world is moving further away from formal education, even from informal education, and is increasingly tied to the concept of self-education.
"Very common skills that are needed today are transversal competencies. These are competencies that are easily transferable. First of all, we are thinking of communication skills, interpersonal competencies, organizational skills," said Bošković.
According to her, people with a lower level of education have a less pronounced educational need, because they cannot easily recognize it in themselves.
"That's okay, but it's not okay for people with a high level of education not to have a pronounced educational need, which they should continuously satisfy by searching for courses, seminars, and training courses themselves, in order to improve their life and professional skills," believes Bošković.
When it comes to legislation, strategic development directions, and plans, Montenegro is, in his opinion, on the right track.
"The other side of the story is how it all works in practice. We do not have a developed flexible system of adult education itself. We do not have fast, efficient training that will meet upcoming educational needs. We do not have a system for predicting the knowledge and skills that we will need in two years. It is very important to follow the development of digital technologies, and we are also lagging behind here," said Bošković.
This is not a problem that only Montenegro faces, but it has been recognized as a huge problem in the countries of the European Union as well.
"Three out of four employees have a problem with digital skills. We must take into account that 20 million people with highly developed digital skills can currently be employed in the European Union countries," said Bošković.
According to her, Montenegro must carefully consider the way it introduces micro-qualifications into the education system.
"It is a good thing that the Proposal for Amendments to the Law on Adult Education includes employers, in the sense that they will be able to organize training for their employees, create their own internal education programs, and that they will be the entities that adopt these education programs. This is news for employers and I hope it will make them happy," said Bošković.
She explained that digital transition implies speed and efficiency.
"Only when we can easily keep up with all the changes that await us can we talk about full business efficiency among employees, innovation among employers, and the resilience of the economy to numerous changes. We must create a safe environment so that these changes are gradual, safe for every individual, employee and employer, and for society as a whole," said Bošković.
She said that she wants the employer to be as involved as possible in the student's internship.
"In practice, something is definitely not right. Our enrollment policy is based largely on the existing teaching staff. It is not good to leave people without jobs, but we must prepare these people in the right way so that they do not remain unemployed, but rather engage in another sphere, so that their capital in terms of knowledge, skills, and experience is used in a slightly different way. We must think that everything is changing and that we are becoming part of the global market and that we cannot remain an isolated island," said Bošković.
To change the world around us, as she said, we must change the world within ourselves.
"This is a key message when we talk about lifelong learning, employer participation, and connecting with the real sector. Regardless of the fact that employers are involved in many bodies that make educational policies, I think we are not heard in the final analysis and that we are often in our own echo chambers from which we can never escape, precisely because we are not versatile enough to understand different concepts of functioning," said Bošković.
She listed three things that need to be changed, which are the depoliticization of decisions, rigid procedures when establishing adult education institutions, implementing certain programs, and the third thing is that microqualifications should not be tied to the education system in the full sense of the word, but to employers.
"Microqualifications should be implemented by employers themselves, in the economy. They are primarily intended for employees, and only then for the unemployed. Microqualifications should give a flexible character to the adult education system. The digital revolution 4.0 should be followed by the education system, especially when it comes to the labor market itself. Speed, quality and efficiency are three key things that we must have if we want to keep up with highly developed economies," said Bošković.
Employers have recognized that they are missing and that we need to obtain three key skills from the education system, which are skills related to performing a specific work task, communication and interpersonal skills, and problem-solving skills.
"The essence is a culture of dialogue between the education sector and the real sector, that is, so that we do not end up in a situation where we are issuing calls for the implementation of certain educational programs at the moment when an educational need arises. By then it is already too late. We must have a culture of anticipating the knowledge, skills and competencies that are necessary for the Montenegrin market," said Bošković.
In addition to the natural beauty that Montenegro has, the greatest beauty it has when it comes to the economy is human capital.
The recording of the podcast was supported by the International Labour Organization.
Bonus video:
