The following article shows that while education deals with the mechanisms of globalization phenomena it is transformed by these global processes at the same time. In other words: There are enormous challenges posed by globalization which have a significant impact on education. The research question is then as to how contemporary globalization phenomena require a fundamental rethinking of the dynamics and concepts, restructuring of the processes and implementation procedures and repositioning of the practices and aims of education. One of the specific objectives of this paper is to acknowledge that the increasingly multifaceted, contradictory and often conflicting global developments greatly influence and shape educational processes as well as learning practices. The study proceeds from the premise that the complexity behind many problems caused by globalization such as cultural heterogeneity, social inequality, ecological imbalance or increased social, political and economic interdependences require a deep disciplinary grounding, call for input from and syntheses of different forms of disciplinary knowledge and methods, need the ability to multi-disciplinarily reach understanding and to cooperate with each other to find alternative answers to these challenges. Besides, I would like to discuss of how education supports active participation in global processes and the need for a dialogue between people in the field of education such as scholars, policy makers, practitioners and participants. The research is based upon the fact that there is a demand for people to develop social capital such as values and principles (tolerance, cooperation and solidarity), acquire new skills and update their existing competences on a regular basis. This investigation suggests that key competences which usually refer to multifunctional and transdisciplinary competencies cannot be taught but must be learned through individualized processes. In the contemporary knowledge society, global civil citizens are required to become lifelong learners because the demand after employability calls for good basic education, key competences and greater flexibility on the job market through lifelong learning opportunities. The claim to become lifelong learners is inextricably connected with economic progress in the knowledge society; this phenomenon is strongly and directly linked to globalization and Europeanization. The intent of this analysis is then to show that the basic principle behind competence development should be “Begegnungslernen” (Görsdorf, 2010) which includes und refers to learning through encounter and exchange, foreign language skills and intercultural communication competences.

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