On April 19th, MIM-Kyiv hosted “Industry 4.0: Education” round table as the part of the “Industry 4.0” series. Business people, legislators, and researchers discussed how make the education adequate with the new challenges.

“Nowadays education needs change badly,” started her welcome speech Prof. Iryna Tykhomyrova, MIM-Kyiv President. “Millennials born with internet and new technologies have different educational requirements and expectations. We must understand young people and meet their educational demand.”

Mr. Oleksiy Skrypnyck, People’s Deputy to Verkhovna Rada (MP), Vice Chairman of the Education and Science Committee at the Parliament agreed with Prof. Tykhomyrova. “Education has been changing dramatically. We need to adjust delivery to match it with the new content. Being a quick learner, mastering new skills and capabilities and flexibility are the new name of the game,” said he.

Dr. Vasyl Kremin, Chairman of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine and ex-minister of education of Ukraine summarized current Ukrainian education problems. He particularly mentioned poor funding and lack of social standing of teachers. Dr. Kremin also said that development of the ability to learn, introduction of the new set of values, and creating competitive edge were pillars of Education 4.0.

Dr. Kateryna Yurchenko, leading scientist of the National Institute of the Strategic Research spoke about the the national growth strategies integrating all trends and shaping skills and knowledge needed for the further development.

Dr. Bohdan Rublov, professor of cybernetics at Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University discussed instruments for the creativity development. However, he was rather skeptical about the Outside Independent Testing (OIT) which is mandatory for admission to the universities because he believed those tests were not sufficient to identify the level of personal development and knowledge of the applicants. On the other hand he stressed that the tests make the ground even for all applicants.

Dr. Vitaly Kurylo, MP and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Luhansk National University shared Dr. Rublov’s skepticism as to the OIT. On his opinion such tests ruin science education. He also mentioned creation of the blended learning encompassing distance learning and real life class experience. Dr. Kurylo also spoke about importance of bridging the gap between the universities and employers to enhance employability of the recent university graduates.

Mr. Denis Dovgopoly, founder of Kyiv StartUp Week observed that people of the past teach people of the future. “Education will change dramatically in less than a decade,” said he.
Mr. Vlery Fischuk from Cisco suggested viewing education and technologies as very similar phenomenon because nowadays technologies are instrumental in human capital development. “Internet is a cornerstone of education allowing dissemination of the courses by the best professors,” said he. He also agreed that current educational crisis had been caused by teachers of XX century delivering their educational products according to approaches of XIX century to kids of XXI century.

Ms Victoria Yevtushenko, Sales Director for Intel in Ukraine and CIS countries presented educational IT products for teachers and children.
Ms. Nadia Omelchenko, HR director for “Octava Capital” Group of Companies addressed personality and job match, early identification of capacities and development of entrepreneurship culture at school. Women’s empowerment in IT industry was her other point of discussion.

Dr. Oksana Shovkoplas from the University of Sumy and Mr. Oleh Mykhailov from Association of the Ukrainian Industrial Automatization Vendors Association spoke about incorporation of better technology into education and fostering the lifelong learning skills.

Ms. Valeria Zabolotna, manager of the Unit Factory project presented the new school model which is on-line oriented. Students in the new school start their education by solving real life problems, learn to communicate, and help others. Students can study there for free, if they work for 3 years in Ukraine after graduation.
To sum it up all participants agreed that learning ability was the most important for survival in the modern world. Development of the overall educational strategy meeting the most current requirements is challenging but absolutely essential and pending task.