Fostering agency in the age of AI: beyond upskilling towards an enabling and transformative pedagogy of work

Abstract

The digital transition, driven by AI, IoT, and Industry 4.0, is redefining the conditions of learning and work, calling for a critical rethinking of lifelong education. This essay proposes a reinterpretation of work not merely as a site of performance, but as a formative and relational environment, where identity is shaped and agency is exercised. In light of the Capability Approach, it argues for the necessity of lifelong learning oriented not toward mere adaptive performance, but toward the genuine empowerment of individuals—understood as the expansion of their freedoms and their capacity to design both themselves and the world.