Sergey Slavinsky - consultant, analyst, marketer, founder of the branding agency Syndicated Brands - reflects on how the approach to education in general will change and what young people need to learn the basics of a successful business and start their own business.
What will business training be like in the future?
Changes in educational and pedagogical technologies are actively discussed by all participants in the process - children, parents, officials, methodologists, teachers. The legacy of the Soviet educational system, where the recipient of educational services was an object of influence, has become obsolete. What will replace him? How should effective business training be organized? According to the expert, only those who have founded their own successful business can teach business disciplines with high quality.
To do business, you need to learn to understand economics, accounting, marketing, PR, HR, logistics and much more. You need to learn to think strategically, see the cause-and-effect relationships between what is happening in the economy, politics, the work of certain areas and specific business.
Universities continue to teach fundamental things needed but not fully understood by students looking for specific knowledge and advice. Courses of coaches and pseudo-business gurus are popular - but they give point knowledge, the adequacy of which cannot be assessed without a holistic understanding of the economy. How does the US higher education system work? Students choose the courses they need, go to study with a specific teacher, more often to practice with fame in business circles.
Relationship between theory and practice
Despite the desire for practice-orientedness, it is impossible to abandon theory in the teaching process. The theory accumulates the experience of thousands of people, businessmen, who have received a practical "vaccination", and this systemic basis cannot be ignored. Higher education teaches you to process a large amount of information, sort and select what you need, and apply theory in practice. Practical advice is also needed, but it alone is not enough for success.
How can this contradiction be resolved? It is necessary to create an educational product that is created on demand for a specific business, synthesizing a theoretical, research and practical approach.
Teaching or Consulting
Traditionally, for education, a teacher is a theorist who knows the basics of the subject well and tells others about it. The teacher usually combines scientific work and teaching students. This scheme lacks a practical component. Consulting also offers training - personalized: an expert consultant talks about which business tools he developed himself, applied in practice and what results were obtained. It is important for both consultants and traditional teachers to master additional competence - the ability to teach, communicate with the audience, it is interesting and without losing the essence of retelling theories, their own and others'.
Many businessmen choose foreign education and MBA as a way to strengthen the theoretical foundation, gain practical knowledge, and make connections in the business sphere. Personal coaching can help you achieve the same result, but it is important to choose a reputable consulting agency or a well-known businessman ready to teach.
Traditional or digital learning?
Will we learn to learn online? Probably yes. Will we lose something in this case? Probably yes. The online format does not allow feeling the energy of the teacher and the audience, reading non-verbal signals, and receiving feedback from others. But online opens up new opportunities: immediate receipt of information upon request, no time-consuming travel, the ability to learn from any teacher from anywhere in the world. But the abundance of teaching material on the Internet and even the desire to master it do not guarantee the result (no one canceled the problems of perception, understanding, alas).
Sergey Slavinsky's remote work experience on educational projects has shown that the exchange of opinions and theories by correspondence, discussion of working hypotheses on Facebook, remote interaction in the learning process allows you to get high-quality results, feedback and sometimes unexpected but pleasant (or productive) response.
Self-education as part of learning
The most important thing for today's student of any age (a 17-year-old applicant or an accomplished businessman) is to understand the most effective way of teaching for him: video, lectures, reading literature, individual consultations.
The second important point is to shift the focus from the result to the process. If the student is not chasing the mark and the result of the USE, but seeks to better understand and assimilate the material, other parameters must be assessed - activity in the learning process, for example.
From a certain moment, each person must form a personal educational route: what he wants to learn, for what, how and where. Understanding the general direction of study allows you to concentrate on entering the desired university, purchasing courses or personal trainings. This plan is adjusted in the process, allowing the general direction to be maintained.
Corporate training
Today, large industrial companies and state corporations can afford corporate training, they invite specialists to train employees, organize their own training departments, and order independent research agencies to conduct educational courses for employees. The next step is to open universities that will use corporations' money to train future specialists in the chosen field.
We do not know what the school of the future will be, but there will definitely be a transition from the subject-object approach to the subject-subject approach, assignments can be received and sent online, the system will become more student-oriented, more flexible and more mobile.
