Press releases

MINSK, 4 October (BelTA) – Vitebsk and Gomel may join the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities. The matter will be on the agenda of the international conference Learning City for Creative Economy at the School of Business and Management of Technology of Belarusian State University due in Minsk from 5 to 6 October, BelTA learned from Yevgeniya Pochepko, a manager of the Vitebsk-based Regional Resource Center for Additional Adult Education.

The event will make part of the German Weeks 2017 program and the Sustainable Development Week organized by the German Federal Government’s Support Program for Belarus in cooperation with governmental, non-governmental, and international organizations. The conference will bring together representatives of relevant ministries, Vitebsk and Gomel authorities, business, state-run and private educational institutions, international agencies, and non-governmental organizations.

Belarusian experts are set to present reports on the role of the knowledge economy in the Belarusian entrepreneurship, the role of business education in the formation of the creative economy of regions, and regional sustainable development strategies. International experts – Sung Lee, the coordinator of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities, Elena Albertovskaya, a representative of Gelsenkirchen People’s University, and Sebastian Knopp, a specialist of the Science and Economy Department at the Regensburg administration – will speak about the implementation of the Learning City concept and creative economy development at the local level. The conference will also feature discussions dedicated to the prospects for Vitebsk and Gomel’s accession to the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities.

Attending the meeting will be Tatyana Starinskaya, a member of the House of Representatives of Belarus’ National Assembly, who carried out the project “Learning region: education for all generations” together with partners in Vitebsk in 2012. As a result of the project, People's Social University was opened at the territorial center for social services in Vitebsk’s Pervomaisky District. “The demand for educational services provided by the university over a period of several years has proven that education satisfies personal and professional needs and thus helps develop human capital, ensure the viability of particular communities and regional sustainable economic development,” Tatyana Starinskaya noted.

The international conference Learning City for Creative Economy makes part of the program carried out by the representative office of the German Adult Education Association in Belarus in cooperation with the Association of Life-Long Learning and Enlightenment, the Association of Business Education, and the educational institution Social Interventions. The program is meant to help implement regional sustainable development strategies for 2016-2025 though intersectoral cooperation and promotion of the creative economy and the Learning City concept among representatives of local authorities, educational institutions, business, and civil society.