IT is a field that always changes from year to year. It’s extremely hard to say what our work, projects, tools and processes will look like in a few years, let alone five. We are constantly learning, adapting, and finding creative solutions not only for daily problems,  but strategic and long-term ones as well. Because of this situation, creativity is ever more so important in every workplace, regardless of its purpose or responsibility. The question is: can someone learn to be creative?

The education system readies young adults for the workplace on a large scale. Interaction between academic institutions and the workplace is now more important than ever before, so that people entering the workforce are ready to face the challenges that face both them and their future companies. Their work habits, attitudes, ability to work in a team, regard for authority, definition of success, desire to take responsibility of their own knowledge, and also creativity are shaped across the fifteen or more years of their education. If the objective of the education system is to usher in a new generation of creative and proactive individuals, in what ways is that system supposed function? What is being done well, and what changes are welcome, or even necessary?

In this round table discussion, we will give our guests a picture of the present and potential future creativity within higher education and try to agree how academics and industry can together prepare a new generation for the challenges that lay ahead.

Participants:

Željka Car, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing

Pavel Gregorić, Department of Philosophy, Centre for Croatian Studies University of Zagreb

Dejan Vinković, PMF Split, Science and Society Synergy Institute

Hrvoje Šimić, CROZ

iModerator: Vedrana Miholić