What is Open Teaching Week
Open Teaching Week at PKG European School Zagreb is held twice a year. It is a special school week in which the classroom becomes a space for encountering the real world. Instead of learning about topics only from textbooks, we bring in experts and speakers who share practical experience, real stories, and help students connect school with life.
It is also important that the entire week is organized to give students freedom of choice. The program has parallel content, so students choose the lectures and workshops they want to attend, ask questions, and actively participate. This creates an atmosphere in which learning comes from curiosity, and everyone can build their own path through the content.
This time's theme: a changing world, not just careers
This time the overall theme was Career Week, but the focus was not on a list of professions or on the question of who will do what one day. The focus was on the breadth of knowledge and way of thinking that students will need regardless of their choice of studies or work.
Through lectures and workshops, students gained different perspectives from practice and real life lessons, as well as a clearer picture of how fast the world is accelerating. With the arrival of the age of artificial intelligence, industries are changing, professions are emerging and disappearing, and the most important thing is to know how to learn, adapt, communicate, take responsibility, and think globally. That is precisely why this week was relevant now, not as preparation for one job, but as preparation for a world that is constantly changing.
Day 1: Skills That Can Be Applied Immediately
INTEGRALEDU held a workshop on CV That Opens Doors and showed how to smartly highlight projects, volunteering, and extracurricular activities, and how to put together a CV that gets noticed in seconds.
ALGEBRA opened the topic of jobs of the future and technologies that are already changing everyday life—VR, AR, 3D printing, and IoT—with the key question of which skills today build tomorrow’s career and why creativity remains crucial in the era of artificial intelligence.
Lorena Dolinar, our new and already very popular teacher, introduced students to the basics of Croatian sign language and the broader message of inclusion and understanding.
Maja Arslanagić brought energy and concrete tools for resilience, confidence, and creative thinking, with the message that every challenge can become a springboard.
Petar Kir Hromatko showed how discipline and teamwork from sports transfer to work and entrepreneurship, and presented sailing through Sailing Spartans and the PKG sailing trip.
Damir Hoyka, one of Croatia’s most renowned photographers, author of books and founder of the educational project Fotosofia, delivered a keynote on how creativity builds confidence and opens doors.
Fran Motušić and Fran Katić brought dentistry firsthand—studies, practice, and life in the clinic—honestly and concretely.
Day 2: People Who Worked at the Top of Their Industries
Marijan Čulo spoke about the transition from competitive sports to international finance and how discipline transfers to work, with an example of working at the global bank Deutsche Bank.
Milan Trenc brought a world-class story. His picture book The Night at the Museum became the basis for a Hollywood film hit, and his works have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Fortune.
Vlaho Hrdalo, a lawyer specializing in technology law and president of UBIK, connected law and technology through fintech, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, and digital privacy.
Eric Ranjeva, Senior Regional Team Leader at the World Bank, introduced the work in global teams and the logic of large projects.
Roko Vodopija brought experience from large systems and leadership roles, from PLIVA, Dukat, TDR, and Diona to consulting at A.T. Kearney and EY Parthenon, and roles at BDO.
Dejan Donev, until recently Head of Digital at Erste Bank, showed how to build a digital product when you lead it from idea to realization. That is exactly how Keks Pay was created, a project he personally launched and brought to an app that is now used by a large number of people. Today he transfers that builder mindset to the startup FinMetrika through the development of AI agent applications.
Day 3: History and Culture as an Experience
Purgerica, the brand and nickname of Josipa Šiklić, heritage interpreter, led a special tour Servus dragi Zagreb moj, designed for those who already know Zagreb but want to experience it through hidden stories and details.
In the classrooms we explored archaeology with Dr. Jacqueline Balen, museum advisor and head of the Prehistoric Department of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb. She showed how the past can be told today clearly, interestingly, and relevantly.
Day 4: Global Perspectives and Different Views on the Future
Matija Babić, founder of Index.hr and author of the global project TasteAtlas, spoke about a world changing faster than ever, about professions that are disappearing, and about the need for different thinking and education in the age of artificial intelligence.
Jeronimo Fuentes Candao, counselor and deputy head of mission at the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain in Croatia, brought diplomacy from the inside, the EU from backstage, and international opportunities that come through languages and cooperation.
Scott Coleman, professor at RIT Croatia and entrepreneur and investor, in his lecture Developing a Startup showed how he developed one of his startups from nothing into a multimillion-dollar company and what is crucial in the first steps.
Domagoj Ilija Cerovac, founder of the Zagreb Chocolate Museum, delivered a lecture on curiosity, persistence, and learning through trial and error, as lessons that are valuable in school and life.
Ivana Vujić Kljajić from Arhitektura Vujić studio, an architect with over 24 years of experience and more than 1,000 projects, brought architecture to real life, with a workshop in which students took on the role of architects working with a difficult client.
Helena Anđelić, Talent Acquisition Specialist at Atlantic Grupa, explained what HR really looks for and what recruitment looks like from the other side, in the context of one of the most well-known regional companies and brands such as Argeta, Cedevita, and Cockta.
Ana Bijelić, a medical student, provided a very concrete introduction to medical studies and the enrollment process.
Day 5: The Sea, Science, Communication, and a Summary of Everything
Donat Petricioli, marine biologist and ecologist, professional diver and founder of D.I.I.V., delivered two lectures on marine biology and the science that protects the Adriatic, with photographs and real field stories.
Merita Arslani in her lecture PR from the Inside showed how to build a story, trust, and reputation. Today she works as Corporate Communications Specialist at Croatia osiguranje, and before that she was at the very top of Croatian media, as editor-in-chief of the portal Dnevnik.hr, editor-in-chief of Express.hr, and journalist at 24sata and many other newsrooms.
Olja Vori presented the University of Applied Health Sciences in Zagreb and real career paths after graduation.
Petra Đurkas Grozić opened the topic of women in science and spoke about confidence, opportunities, and the path to STEM.
We also presented the educational trip to Zadar in June 2026, a field mini-school of marine biology.
Finally, our teacher Tomislav Kavaev, a graduate computer scientist from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing at the University of Zagreb, connected the entire week into one clear picture and shared experiences of working in companies such as Oracle, BMW, and Siemens Nixdorf, from the perspective of an IT consultant and project manager.
Conclusion: The Future Belongs to Those Who See Multiple Perspectives
The same message ran through the entire week. With the arrival of the age of artificial intelligence, the world is changing faster than ever. Professions are disappearing, new ones are emerging that we could not have imagined a few years ago, and the certainty that we know what is coming tomorrow is increasingly diminishing.
Therefore, preparing for the future does not only mean choosing a profession. It means developing distinctly human skills—curiosity, creativity, responsibility, communication, resilience, the ability to learn, and the ability to work with others. It means learning to see the world from multiple perspectives, because it is precisely this breadth that helps us understand change, adapt, and make smarter decisions.
And that is why it is important to think globally, whether we act locally or build international paths. PKG Career Week brought students exactly that: experiences, ideas, contacts, and a way of thinking that helps them not just be observers in a changing world, but people who know how to understand and shape it.