Alan Tait is Director of International Development and Teacher Education at The Open University, UK This presentation was delivered as part of his keynote speech at the 2014 EDEN Annual Conference in Zagreb. http://www.eden-online.org

1. Interesting work and Open
Education
Alan Tait
Professor of Distance Education and
Development
The Open University UK
EDEN 2014 1

2. Employment, unemployment and
Open Education: from labour to work
Summary
• Challenges of work in life
• Threat from unemployment
• Poor quality work
• The Precariat
• Demography
• More of the same?
• The moment to rethink?
• The obligations of educators
• The potential of the Open
Education movement
EDEN 2014 2

3. Unemployment Europe 2013
Eurostat 2013
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Unemployment_statistics
EDEN 2014 3

4. Unemployment Europe 2013
• Country average E28, 11%
• Country range 5-27%
• 26.8 million people unemployed
• More than entire populations of Netherlands
and Austria
EDEN 2014 4

5. Youth unemployment Europe 2010-2012
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Unemployment_statistics
EDEN 2014 5

6. Youth unemployment Europe 2010-
2012
• Country average 23%
• Range of countries 8-58%
• 5.5 million young people unemployed
• More than entire population of Finland
EDEN 2014 6

7. Unemployment Europe by
educational level 2012
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Unemployment_statistics
EDEN 2014 7

8. Educational attainment and
unemployment
Unemployed with
• Primary and lower secondary 4%-42%
• Upper secondary 3%-28%
• Tertiary education 2.5%-18%
EDEN 2014 8

9. Threat and promise of machine
intelligence revolution
• ‘Much routine brain-work will be computerised,
as happened to clerical skills. Middle income jobs
could hollow out far further. The outcome could
be still more polarised incomes, with a tiny group
of winners at the top and a vastly larger group
struggling below.’
• ‘In 2012 ..the top 1% of Americans earned 22% of
all incomes’
Martin Wolf
Financial Times February 5 2014, reviewing Brynjolffson E and McAfee A, The Second
Machine Age
EDEN 2014 9

10. Impact of unemployment
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Bad health habits (e.g. smoking, alcohol and
other substance abuse)
• Low self-esteem
• Increased suicide
• Increased general mortality
Lynn M, Sandifer R and Stein S 1985
Jefferis J et al 2010
Mathers C and Schofield D 1998
Yur’yev A et al 2010
EDEN 2014 10

11. Miserable experience in the workplace
• 40% of employees are ‘not engaged in the
workplace’
• Impact on happiness and wellbeing
• Impact on productivity and innovation
• http://mashable.com/2013/11/24/job-satisfaction
EDEN 2014 11

12. Top and bottom occupations
Top have
• Authority
• Role supporting people
• Income level
• Skill
• Stability
Bottom have
• Lack of autonomy
• No care for people
• Low social respect
• Lower wages
• Short contracts
• Unpleasant working
conditions
EDEN 2014 12

13. The Precariat: the working poor
• Low security
• Low wages
• Job not career
• ‘Flexible’ in negative
senses
• ‘disposable’
EDEN 2014 13

14. Employment and unemployment in
Europe: NOT business as usual
Health: long term damage Social conflict: anomie
EDEN 2014 14

15. What is to be done?
Increase routes to
livelihood
How must open education contribute?
Change nature of work
EDEN 2014 15

16. Increased routes to livelihood
• Europe as sustainable for employment in
world economy
• Skills and knowledge to create ‘world class
economy’
• Skills and knowledge to support individuals in
innovation and job applications
• Work that supports health and wellbeing
EDEN 2014 16

17. In work: instrumental and
developmental attitudes
• Adam Smith: work as toil. Rest as desirable
state
• John Ruskin and William Morris: work as craft
• Friedrich Engels: work as fulfilment
• Taylorism: work for majority as ‘operatives’
• What vision for work in 21st century?
EDEN 2014 17

18. From labour to work: can we change?
Worker as object
• Labour
• Job
• Operative
• Low skill
• Routine
• Wage
• Short term contract
• Precarité
• Poverty in old age
• Others’ purposes
• Alienated
• Object
Worker as subject
• work
• Vocation
• Craft and skill
• Autonomy
• Knowledge
• Career
• Stability
• Salary
• Pension
• Lifelong learning
• Professional
• My purpose
• Subject
EDEN 2014 18

19. The transition to the digital world:
what help can it give?
EDEN 2014 19

20. A new landscape: from Distance and e-
learning to Open Education
• Scale
• Flexibility
• From informal to formal learning
• From paradigm of ‘long’ to ‘short’
programmes
• Pedagogic innovation
• Mobile learning
EDEN 2014 20

21. Open Education: the new landscape of
innovation
• Values led
• Anti commodity
• ‘free’
• Inclusion
• Radical disruptive potential
EDEN 2014 21

22. MOOCs and OER’s: new models
for learning
Passion and demand for learning is huge
Current model of Higher Education is unsustainable
Qualifications not completed (50% Baccalaureate
completion in USA)
Crisis of confidence re price and value
Technology and on-line learning could offer different
solutions
22EDEN 2014

23. Skills and Open Education: advantages
not disadvantages
• Learning , not apart from but in life and work
• Investigation
• Virtual teamworking
• Management of online discussion
• Curating of e-resources
• ICT supported presentations
EDEN 2014 23

24. Open education: radical potential
• Compelling attraction of learning
• Scale: only Open Education has capacity
• Learner success
• Skills for personal lives, citizens, creators of
livelihood
• To become subjects not objects in society and
economy
EDEN 2014 24

25. The vision for interesting work and
open education
• Would include
• Education for All: not privileged minority
• not just the ‘salariat’ and their children
• Affordable or free
• At scale
• Compelling and high quality
• Relevant for livelihood and development
• Fit for mobile learning
• With employers as social partners
• work in life
• learning in life
• To make people subjects not objects
EDEN 2014 25

26. What can we do?
• Will EC projects make enough impact?
• Need national interventions
• Go to senior management within our
organisations and institutions
• Promote livelihood as policy priority for education
• Go to employers, trades unions, and governments
• They all need vision for learning and work in life
• Task force for EDEN?
EDEN 2014 26

27. Interesting work and Open Education
• Educational
innovation for the
crisis in Europe
• Your vision!
• Your actions!
EDEN 2014 27
Athene and Nike