On December 22, Oleksandr Savruk, kmbs Dean, Yuliia Tychkivska (The Aspen Institute Kyiv), Yuliia Melnyk (European Business Association), Yaryna Boichuk (LvBS) talked about new approaches in the business education at the Synergy. IT Business & IT Education conference. Oksana Sitnikova (EPAM) moderated the discussion.

Participants agreed that despite different stakeholders’ efforts, the Ukrainian education system still exists in an old paradigm. Instead of making partial improvements, we have to build a totally new system with different game rules.

While talking about business education tendencies, Oleksandr Savruk put an analogy of a photographer’s zoom — as the obvious thing now is changing focus. We have already transitioned to another studying business model and this understanding has to institutionalize. Also, the shift in understanding the studying environment happened — now people from different continents can interact in virtual classes. Oleksandr’s advice for now is to invest into teachers’ requalification and educational institutions infrastructure.

Yuliia Melnyk emphasized it had become simpler to learn and take experience from the European, American and Asian specialists. Also, she noted we see digitalization on one side, still people started appreciating offline interactions more.

Yaryna Boichuk has joined the discussion online and talked about the importance of being resilient on the level of businesses, companies and people. Thus, not just “shrink” from the challenges, but use new possibilities. It’s critically important to be your own education manager — be conscious while choosing among different providers and motivate oneself.

Summarising the discussion, Yuliia Tychkivska noted that beside resilience, flexibility and being conscious that everyone is the part of a bigger world, we need happy people who fulfill their own potential. Yuliia addressed all the business educators, “Cultivate the people, as we need happy entrepreneurs to build a happy country.”