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ISET Students Deliver Policy Seminar On Unemployment Issues
Monday, 20 February, 2017

On February 20, ISET students delivered yet another policy seminar. The seminar was opened by Eric Livny, the president of ISET, who delivered an inspirational speech regarding the jobs of the future. He posed the question, “In this rapidly changing world, what do we need to teach schoolchildren today so that their skills and knowledge are still relevant ten or twenty years from now?”. This could be considered something of a million-dollar question, since, in the next few decades, artificial intelligence seems likely to push humans out of the job market; if the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century created such a massive urban working class, the new technology revolution will create a massive class of useless people. Mr. Livny also talked about the issue of degree inflation, and the disoriented universities that contribute to unemployment all over the world with meaningless degrees. As formal certification gradually loses its power, Mr. Livny's suggestion was to create an online skills platform where those who offer their services are assessed by the number of stars.

The ISET students continued their seminar by narrowing the issue down to problems confronting Georgia. The seminar, entitled “Youth Unemployment in Georgia, Current Standing, Challenges and Recommendations”, was delivered by ISET second-year students Tatia Shashiashvili, Tatia Zhorzholiani, Nino Chikovani, and Natalia Kabulashvili under the mentorship of Dr. Karine Torosyan. The students emphasized the problems of mismatching skills, lack of experience, nepotism, social norms (such as the difficulty of firing elderly) people, etc). that drive youth unemployment rates up in Georgia. To overcome these problems, the students presented several policy options such as promoting the image of vocational education and training, supporting projects aiming at researching and communicating the qualifications demanded by the labor market, as well as organizing career guidance programs at schools. The presentation was followed by questions from the audience.

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