The interrelation between lifelong learning, creative industries and economic competitiveness of the country was discussed at the international conference “Learning сity for сreative economy” that was held on October 5-6, 2017 at the School of Business and Management of Technology of BSU.
The event was attended by more than 70 representatives of local authorities, Belarusian parliament, state educational institutions and private training centers, non-governmental organizations and institutions, commercial sector and international agencies.
Mr Denis Kanapatski, Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus, Ms Natalia Schasnovich, National Commission of the Republic of Belarus for UNESCO, and Ms Tatsiana Starynskaya, House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus made a welcoming speech on the Belarusian side. The opening ceremony was also attended by the German Ambassador in Belarus Mr Peter Dettmar, Regional Director of DVV International in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova Ms Bettina Brand and Ms Astrid Sahm, Executive Director of the International Centre for Education and Exchange in Dortmund (IBB gGmbH).
The first day of the conference was devoted to the acquaintance with international experience: Mr Sung Lee, project officer of UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, presented the mechanisms for joining the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities; Ms Elena Albertovskaya (Gelsenkirchen Folk High School) talked about the 20-year experience of Gelsenkirchen as a learning city, and manager of cluster “Cultural and creative industries” of Regensburg City Administration Mr Sebastian Knopp provided examples of creative economy development in his city. Mr Sergey Priyma and Ms Svetlana Boiko (Melitopol City, Ukraine) shared the experience of introducing the concept “learning city” on the post-Soviet area.
The participants also had an opportunity to ask foreign and Belarusian experts questions that they were interested in: evaluation criteria of the learning cities’ activities and forms of their cooperation between each other, synchronization of creative industries and the real sector of economy, motivation of local residents of any age to participate in educational programs, search for resources, etc.
During group work, the representatives from Vitebsk and Gomel (pilot cities of the program “Learning city for creative economy”) decided on the further steps for introducing a concept “learning city” and developing creative economy: promotion among the general public through social networks, creation of a single information resource about available educational opportunities, holding events on the topic etc.
The international conference "Learning city for creative economy" was organized within the <link belarus projects joint-program-learning-city-for-creative-economy>program of the same name and was one of the events of the German Week-2017 and the Weeks of Sustainable Development organized by the Support Programme of Belarus.
The next events within the program will be trainings for representatives of educational institutions, non-governmental organizations and small and medium-sized businesses in Vitebsk and Gomel, as well as a startup competition.
Contacts: +375 17 207 98 35, +375 29 171 93 97, +375 29 257 43 97
pristrom@dvv-international.by (Natalia Pristrom, manager of the program)