This blog series takes a look at some of the issues in focus at our upcoming Istanbul Development Dialogues, a global development forum for shaping sustainable development futures through policy and innovation in Europe and Central Asia, bringing together leaders, experts and changemakers to forge new partnerships and solutions.  
 

When we launched the Future of Work Academy, we weren’t sure what to expect. Would young people across Eurasia really sign up for a six-week virtual journey about the green and digital transitions—two themes that often feel abstract even to policy folks?

We assumed interest might be limited. We were wrong.

Over 2,300 young people applied, with more than 200 joining the live sessions from across Eastern Europe, Western Balkans, Central Asia, South Caucasus, and Türkiye. Week after week, they logged in to discuss everything from AI and air quality to circular textiles and career storytelling. What we thought might be a niche topic turned into a vivid conversation about agency, purpose and what it means to build meaningful work in a world in flux.

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report (2025) reminds us that nearly 40% of today’s core skills will change within just a few years, and that 23% of jobs globally will transform due to digitalization, the green transition and new technologies. Our Academy pilot was created to help young people navigate that change - connecting digital and green transformations with real career paths. But as the weeks unfolded, we realized that our own assumptions about youth, skills and the “future of work” needed a rethink.
 

Assumption 1: Everyone already ‘gets’ the Future of Work  

We assumed young people already had a grasp of what “the future of work” meant: automation, green jobs, hybrid skills, lifelong learning. After all, the terms fill conference stages and LinkedIn feeds. It turned out that while the youth were deeply curious, many were encountering these ideas for the first time  . For some, the concept of twin transitions—green and digital—felt distant until we translated it into everyday life: local energy systems, polluted air or even a mango farm in Kazakhstan.

“When I joined, the twin transition was something very new. I didn’t see them together before.” 
– Participant, Central Asia

Lesson: Global narratives don’t always translate directly into local realities. Next time, we’ll start with economic and sectoral deep dives: what’s actually happening in each country’s labour market, and connecting those realities to the bigger transitions shaping our future. Because while tech and green jobs are critical, so are the local manufacturing, service or creative sectors that can still benefit from digitalization and low-carbon innovation.

We’ll dive deeper into country-specific labour dynamics—from green manufacturing in Türkiye to digital entrepreneurship in Georgia—and bridge those with UNDP’s work on just transitions.
 

Assumption 2: The education–employment model (must) still work  

We used to think the biggest barrier still for young people was a lack of formal skills. The traditional model — “get a degree, then a job” — still feels essential in many ways, but it’s also increasingly showing bigger cracks. Degrees still matter, but they’re no longer enough on their own. Our speakers and participants reminded us that while education provides the foundation, the real differentiator lies in how people continue to learn, adapt and connect what they know to real-world challenges.

They wanted more practice: micro-projects, mentors and opportunities to experiment safely. They asked sharper questions than we did, like: “If we rely more on air-quality data, how do we avoid reinforcing inequalities between data-rich and data-poor regions?” or “can digital twins be applied for sustainability in cities like ours?”

“The concept of ‘learning workers’ really stayed with me — it’s not enough to have a degree anymore.”
– Participant, Western Balkans

“I have friends who don’t even know about LinkedIn — so face-to-face connections are still important.”
– Participant, Serbia

Lesson: We need to go beyond teaching to enabling mentoring loops, peer exchanges and opportunities for storytelling that help people explain not just what they do, but who they are and why it matters. Because the old education-to-employment conveyor belt is too narrow for today’s reality of fractional work, multi-career lives and lifelong learning.