UCCA Beijing

Mercator Salon XXII: Lifelong Learning

2015.11.1
15:00-17:00

Conversation
Location:  Atrium
Language:  Chinese and English with simultaneous interpretation

Chinese society is currently undergoing a development phase in which acquired knowledge quickly becomes obsolete and acquired skills quickly become worthless in many areas. Furthermore, the lack of practical orientation in school and university education generally means that graduating students embark on a fourth phase of training after university during which they are prepared within a company for the work they will actually be required to perform.

The "reform and opening up policy" that has been pursued for the past thirty-five years, with its far-reaching and at times downright revolutionary social, economic and cultural changes, has already required the Chinese public to undertake learning processes that go well beyond anything that can be taught in school or in the family. The kind of changes to work processes, social relationships, ethical norms, life and career expectations and consumer behaviour which took place in Europe over the course of several generations—for example as a result of the transition from an agricultural to an industrial society and subsequently from an industrial to a digital post-industrial society—happened in China in the space of a single generation, which placed enormous demands on it in terms of learning. This necessity to adapt in an extremely short period of time to radically changed living and working conditions explains the amazing flexibility and willingness of many Chinese to acquire new knowledge and skills and react to new requirements. Young Chinese respond with a greater willingness to learn and with more openness than their European contemporaries, especially when it comes to digital innovations and the development of communication technologies.

China's evolutionary phase as the "workshop of the world", based on unskilled or only semi-skilled labor, is coming to an end. Confronted with growing unemployment among the army of millions of "peasant workers", as well as among university graduates, the Chinese education system will have to create far more opportunities for post-school continuing education and further training than currently exist. There is no sign of any such concept at present, and although lifelong learning is practiced, it is virtually never the subject of public or academic discourse.

Ticketing:

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*The deadline for registration is 5 pm on 30th October.

Speakers

Prof. Jutta Allmendinger (Ph.D., President of the WZB Social Science Center Berlin, Professor of sociology at the Humboldt University of Berlin, Honorary professor of sociology at the Free University Berlin)

Jutta Allmendinger received her training in sociology and social psychology at the University of Mannheim, the University of Wisconsin, Harvard University and the Free University of Berlin. Previously she worked as a researcher at the Max-Planck-Institute for Human Development in Berlin and as a full professor of sociology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich. From 2003 to 2007 she was the director of the Institute for Employment Research in Nuremberg.

In 2009, she received the Communicator Award – Science Award of the Donors' Association, awarded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to researchers who have been exceptionally successful in communicating their scientific findings to the public. In 2013, she was honoured with the Federal Cross of Merit 1st class of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Prof. Huang Jian Ph.D. (Vice President of Shanghai Institute for Lifelong Education, Professor of Adult Education/ Human Resource Development of East China Normal University)

Jian Huang, Ph.D., is the Vice President of Shanghai Institute for Lifelong Education and professor of the first Graduate program in Adult Education/ Human Resource Development of East China Normal University. The main interests of her team focus on lifelong education policies, workplace learning and human resource development, organizational learning and learning organization, continuing professional development, and learning communities. She is also a Fulbright Scholar, and the Member of the International Advisory Committee of Research Work and Learning. She is active in promoting international academic exchange in the field of lifelong learning.

Moderator

Michael Kahn-Ackermann (Stiftung Mercator China Special Representative)