General knowledge key to getting a job

Professor Yiannis Sakellis talks to Kathimerini about new trends in education, social development, and changes in the 21st century

By Tassoula Karaiskaki - Kathimerini

The visionary writer, researcher, and academic Yiannis Sakellis, with 25 years of experience in tracing new trends in the education, work and social environment, has clear ideas on what a young person should do in order to succeed in his or her chosen career, on what schools and universities should be doing to equip people for the 21st century, on where the country is going and what its failings are, and finally, on what Greeks as a people have yet to become aware of.

Sakellis divides his time between his job at Panteion University, the National Research Center (EKKE), where he is director of the Social Policy Institute, the Labor Ministry, where he heads the Employment Experts’ Council, and his writing (Sakellis has published studies on the labor market and employment policies).

“We live in a time of permanent fear about the future, that our career prospects are narrowing, that we are losing the possibility of permanent tenure and good jobs, so we are unable to realize that major changes simply require changes in direction,” he says emphatically.

These directions are not always available in schools and universities, nor has society become aware of them, so that what is simple and self-evident is underestimated; without good general knowledge, technological skills and foreign languages, we cannot avoid the threat of unemployment. In addition, every innovative effort gets caught up in the wheels of bureaucracy and the lack of communication and coordination between services, so there is a huge waste of effort in taking even a small step forward.