At the beginning of the second semester, on March 6, 2024, a practical seminar “Non-formal education as an integral part of effective teaching of higher education seekers” was held for bachelor students of the Departments of Fashion and Style, Professional Education in Technology and Design, Fashion Technology and Digital Art of the Faculty of Arts and Fashion, KNUTD. The event was devoted to the analysis of the main advantages of non-formal education in the educational process, the problems of finding and using distance platforms and services for higher education seekers, and the characteristics of the most popular platforms for non-formal education.

Non-formal education is usually acquired through educational programs and does not provide for the award of state-recognized educational qualifications by level of education, but may result in the award of professional and/or partial educational qualifications. Most often, it is organized in the form of short-term courses, trainings, master classes, seminars, webinars, etc. The main goals of such education are to enable participants to acquire additional professional and personal competencies.

Nataliia Ostapenko, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Fashion, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, noted that the University strongly supports and encourages students to obtain knowledge not only within the framework of selected educational programs, but also through non-formal education, recognizes the results obtained, and offers various opportunities to use the resource of non-formal education in the implementation of an individual educational trajectory.

The seminar was also attended by the faculty members – heads of the departments T.V. Struminska, A.P. Dubrivna, deputy deans A.V. Kolodyazhna, T.A. Dzykovych, O.I. Vodzinska, curators Y.O. Mamchenko, S.Y. Lozovenko and V.P. Kernesh.

The students were also shown the page on the University’s website for non-formal education, where they can find important and useful information.

During the practical seminar, Nataliia Valentynivna told the students of the educational and professional programs "Modeling, Design and Artistic Decoration of Light Industry Products", "Psychology", "Design and Technology of Garments", "Textile Technologies of Fashion and Interior Space", "Digital Art", "Computer Design in the Fashion Industry" that the results of non-formal education are recognized in the formal education system in the manner prescribed by law: the Law of Ukraine "On Higher Education", the Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine "On Approval of the Procedure for Recognition in Higher and Professional Higher Education of Learning Outcomes Obtained through Non-formal and/or Informal Education". The procedures for recognizing such results are regulated by the Regulations on the Procedure for Recognition and Transfer of Learning Outcomes Obtained through Formal, Non-Formal and/or Informal Education and Determination of Academic Differences at Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design. The right to recognize learning outcomes in non-formal education applies to students of all levels of education at KNUTD.

This right was exercised by the students of the first (bachelor’s) level (Group BSHMK-20) of the program “Modeling, Design and Artistic Decoration of Light Industry Products” Yevheniia Lazariv and Anastasiia Molodan. Thus, the students successfully completed the courses "Graphic Design Fundamentals", "Digital Fashion Mindest", intensive course "Create Designs for Social Media with Canva", "Learn Digital Painting to Make Cell Shaded Concept Art", "ProCreate Masterclass: How to Draw and Paint on iPad Course", received certificates, which allowed them to count the competencies they had acquired in non-formal education as the results of studying the topics of the course "Computer Aided Product Design".

The students shared their own experience and talked about the algorithm for gaining access to courses from the University and the list of online platforms that can be found on the KNUTD website in the section "Non-formal and informal education". Yevheniia and Anastasiia spoke about the Coursera and Udemy platforms as having a wide variety of courses. The girls pointed out that online courses on these platforms do not depend on a set of groups and students can start taking them individually. The students were also provided with practical advice on finding open educational courses and working on distance learning platforms, and their questions were answered.

During the lively discussion, it was emphasized that non-formal education is an indispensable phenomenon of a person’s comprehensive lifelong education, and is also able to provide quality support and expand formal education that meets the requirements of modern society today. Only then does learning become effective.

Dear students, we wish you great motivation in acquiring knowledge!

14.03.2024