Building a diverse team is good policy on all levels, but what does diversity mean to you? The most obvious answer might be around race and gender, or maybe also age and sexual orientation, but it goes a lot deeper than that. To say that our teams, companies and corporations should be reflective of this level of diversity is a given, and not up for debate, but we also need to talk about acquired diversity.
Inherent diversity is the things that are naturally basic to you, which covers the list above. Acquired diversity, however, is the things we pick up on life's journey. Our way of thinking and communicating, our values, cognitive flexibility, mindset, cultural fluency and a number of other attributes grow and develop from the rich, unique tapestry of our lives.
A study from Deloitte and BJKLI found that older generations tend to think of inherent diversity and issues like civil rights and equality when they talk about diversity. Millennials, who make up a great deal of the workforce, tend to see diversity as the full picture of acquired and inherent attributes. What is more, they largely see diversity as a must for effective teams and expect this in their work environment. Resilient, adaptable teams need diversity in its broad sense.
Because "diversity and inclusion" are often found together in phrasing, people might assume they are the same thing. A Gallup poll found that there was a lack of understanding around this, and that it was essential to treat them separately. Diversity is just about hiring- who is on the payroll. If a company is only thinking about appearances and status, that is where they will stop, because inclusion is not about box-ticking. Inclusion takes work.
Inclusion means that everybody feels equally included and valued. There is a place for all voices, and there are structures to ensure that everyone can contribute in their way. See what we mean about inclusion taking work?
Managers need training in unconscious bias, to identify it, work on it and prevent it from making an impact on others. Managers and leaders build the culture, so getting their own house in order first is critical. You can try Harvard's own test if you are curious about it. In fact, Harvard found that employees working under a manager who exhibited unconscious bias performed much worse than they did under a manager who was inclusive. Just because you are blind to your bias, it does not mean others can't perceive it and feel it. Non minorities often feel "automatic inclusion" and so find it hard to understand that this is not automatic for everyone.
Differences among the team should be celebrated and supported. Should a team member be even subtly or subconsciously excluded because of their religion, political inclination, sexual preference, or cultural background, or should we focus our collaboration on valuing the person by the great professional impact he/she brings? You would think that the answer is quite obvious here, but we still believe there's a long way to go as some organizations still abide by non-inclusive practices that threaten diversity integration.
However, the optimist in us make us believe that efforts are slowly becoming more visible in the way of showcasing achievements from the whole team, bringing in diversity mentors, adding pronouns after our names on emails, or even thinking about the fact that certain colors on a PowerPoint presentation make it harder for someone who is dyslexic. Such actions help all of our team to know that they are seen and that they are included, and not an afterthought.
Real inclusion targets, proper training and reflection, open discussions and honest feedback, uncomfortable conversations, and painful growth. Inclusion takes work, but if you are serious about diversity, then there is no shortcut. Diversity is a sprint; inclusion is a marathon.
Do you want to be surrounded by people that look, think and talk like you? Great, then all you have to do is wait for human cloning to become legal, and you can get your wish.
For the rest of us, who want our teams to reflect the communities we serve, the good news is that diversity means strength. Have you ever said out loud "wow, I had never thought about it like that?". You can thank cognitive diversity for that one. Different experiences and cultures form different ways of thinking that can be absolutely invaluable for innovation, or even just thinking through a solution from all angles. Marc Hammana, cultural diversity and creative leadership coach told us that his work comes from "mining the gold" in diverse teams and finding the way to draw out people's unique strengths and show how valuable they can be. This doesn't mean throwing the Hofstede cultural calculator into a meeting, but really taking the time to think about how we hold space for people to contribute in ways we had not foreseen, and to make sure they feel supported to speak up. Cultures influence so much in us, from our relationship with time, the respect we have for "authority", or the individualistic versus pluralistic approach we take into every decision we make.
Cognitive diversity means eliminating the all-time-top-100 killer of creativity: groupthink. When an idea is proposed and the manager says "that will never work", cognitively diverse teams will raise the "it might if..." or "what about if we..." or "actually, I think there's something in this because..." contributions that just might change the game. Without inclusion, however, these contributions will never be vocalized. Cognitively diverse teams solve problems faster and, let's face it, are much more fun!
The evidence is clear. Companies that are culturally diverse and have balanced gender representation perform much better on average. We've actually taken note of that, and as much as we loved our power-women environment, we have brought a great addition to the team, who is a great balance to the previous all-ladies team at geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy). We couldn't be happier about having our Mark (not the other Marc in this article) in the team now!
Diversity leads to more profits, attracting more top talent and, as the World Economic Forum put it, "the business case for diversity is now overwhelming". But yet, we are still so far from getting it right. Diversity is not an automatic ticket to skyrocketing profits, and if this is your sole motivation for hiring this way, then please make sure you are last in the queue to be cloned.
It is inclusion that is the missing link. The real, hard work of looking in the mirror and confronting our implicit bias, blind spots and self-image. If inclusion feels easy, you're not doing it right. We all have a responsibility to make sure our team feel psychological security and to know that they have earned their place and are not just to showcase a company's diversity stats.
We also have to keep talking about it, normalizing the journey, without being performative. Sending an "Eid Mubarak!", "Happy Diwali", "Feliz Semana Santa", Happy Hanukkah!", "过年好 (Happy Lunar New Year)" or any other personalized greeting to your employees is great, but the real work is far deeper. Our world draws its strength, but also its beauty from diversity. Steel is a fusion of iron and carbon, and the most provocative art is a play of light and shadow. Diversity is the way the world works best, and those who truly embrace this will make it a better place on every level.
Seth got us thinking. Last week we listened to Seth Godin give a keynote speech at the Ad World conference in which, quite typically, he flew in the face of conventional "wisdom". His message to those who have something to offer the world was simple: go and find your tribe, no matter how small, just do what you do and do it well. Focusing only on massive scaling often ends up, he said, by "selling average things to average people". Be extraordinary, be passionate, be authentic, and the rest will come.
The market for university courses in certain sectors is very mature. Business, leadership, marketing, food and drink, hospitality, and the rest. Anyone starting out now with an MBA in Global Leadership is really going to struggle to differentiate from the rest. Now is the time, for those who can, to launch niche university courses.
The VRIO matrix which helps us figure out how sustainable (if at all!) our competitive advantage is, asks the key questions "Is it rare? Is it expensive/easy to imitate?". For so many of today's degrees, they are ubiquitous, and online learning providers are doing a pretty good job at replicating the content for a fraction of the cost. Employers care more these days about the skills you've developed and are happy to provide their own training to make sure it fits their needs. That means universities, to stay relevant, must answer the question "is it worth it?". They must be able to provide what cannot easily be obtained elsewhere, and that means evolving their offer and finding a niche to call their own.
Harvard Business Review tells us that finding a niche means actually creating it, and that often comes from identifying a subgroup within an existing market that are underserved, and meeting that need. The interesting thing here is that this niche often cuts across demographics, and so you get a whole new scenario. Universities who are trying to offer everything to everyone will always be serving most in a less than perfect way, and this offers an opportunity to the outlier who says- this is my tribe right here. So who is doing this, and how?
We know what you're going to say. This isn't niche! This is the opposite of niche. An undergraduate degree that focuses on the problems you want to solve in the world, and equips you with the transferable skills to do so. This is focusing on anything.
The niche here, however, is the learning approach. There is nothing else like it out there; at least nothing that is yet making much noise. This degree is, in our view, a clever and future-proof offer that will influence other institutions to follow suit.
As they say on the website, "it is no longer enough to graduate with a 2:1 degree. You need to graduate with the skills employers are looking for". You can see why we included this example here- it is exciting to see something like this on offer, and it is largely unique. Students focus on a problem they want to solve, and are given a grounding in a wide variety of fields from sociology to mathematics, research methods to communication skills, innovation methodologies to problem solving and collaboration skills. The focus here is not on knowledge with the skills as a by-product, but rather on the skills themselves. This is a project-based degree and though LIS are the niche creators, they will certainly be sharing the space sometime soon. As our trusty competitive advantage framework shows, the big risk to your niche position is in the ease of imitation.
You take one look at the website, and you can see how focused this course is immediately. The dark red colour of the site immediately evokes the best of Burgundy wine, and it is clear that the complex nature of the wine trade is dealt with in-depth and detail with embedded collaboration from industry experts. The curriculum is not diluted with generic courses cannibalized from other masters degrees.
The Burgundy School of Business answers that all-important question upfront: Why should I study here? Universities do not exist on islands, cut off from their environment. They are an ecosystem, and the best institutions keep their walls permeable to allow the flow of ideas and insights both ways with surrounding business and community groups. The Burgundy region not only has the provenance of a centuries-old wine trade, but also showcases strong links with the industry. That the faculty are wine masters, winegrowers, or distribution experts is to be expected in a competitive MBA, but the scale of the guest speaker programme and the learning visits not only to production centres but an international distribution centre in New York shows that the focus is not only local but extends along the supply chain. For us, the key detail that made this offer stand out as a strong niche offer is the on-site innovation and tasting facility. It is always a concern that universities teach what is already known and what has already happened, without being part of what is changing and what is to come. The live link between innovation, academia and industry is a positive statement of relevance and adaptable evolution to market trends.
Global food systems are changing. The UN has made it clear that plant-based diets "offer major opportunities to address climate change". Animal agriculture and the resulting deforestation and incursion into pristine wildlife habitats increases the risk of further pandemics, as well as the risk of antibiotic resistance among humans. The whole global food chain is a time bomb.
Such issues are a focal point for Generation Alpha and Generation Z fears climate change over everything else. Solution-oriented courses of study with a practical focus on impact, are clearly set to grow. While master's degrees in sustainability and ethical supply chain management abound, some universities are getting quite a lot more niche.
Ethnobotany at the University of Kent is the interdisciplinary study of "plants and their ecology in the context of their cultural, social and economic significance". This is laser-focused on the solution of a global supply chain that must take into account complex factors across a number of disciplines. What food can be grown where, and why? How can the land be managed for sustainability and to support biodiversity? How does this connect with tradition and local practice, and if we are to introduce new practices, how would this work best?
This niche is clearly appealing to a generation of students who want to get to the heart of the problem. A master's degree will often give students a solid grounding in the areas of focus, but the application is up to them. In this course, problem-based learning is at the core, and so the resulting knowledge and skills are an integral and organic part of the solution. These skills and knowledge areas will be in huge demand by the end of this decade.
Kodawari is the Japanese art of taking small things and embellishing them with the beauty of detail until they are perfect; not to everyone perhaps, but to a core of people who will dedicate their lives to such things.
In an age where universities have to show direct professional relevance and compete with more informal online learning offers and qualifications/courses offered directly from companies, getting specific and specialized is a good idea. The VUCA (volatile, complex, uncertain, ambiguous) world ahead does not only mean a more fluid approach for students and companies but universities too.
We need to see course offers that evolve every year with industry trends (and not at the 5-yearly course content meeting). Offers that serve a specific need and stand out from the sea of broader and more generic courses that seem adaptable but are really just trying to be all things to all people.
In the world of tomorrow, the problems we face will need deep dive specialists and not jacks-of-all trades. We will need learning experiences that evolve with the industry, and not static courses. Lastly, we will need learners equipped with transferable skills and real-world savvy. It is the time of niche focus to face big problems.
Seth Godin at Ad World 2021! If you haven't heard of him, just type "Seth" into Google and his blog will be on page one. We are not even kidding. Seth is one of those people who just merged the creativity and innovation within marketing, with such revolutionary insights into the minutiae of human behaviour. Like Malcolm Gladwell, he is one of those people who finds the quirks, and the bits that others missed, and shows you why they are actually the most important bits.
OK, we are fanning out just a bit here, but this was a great talk. The format was actually an interview, which drew out a lot of key insights, and we hope conferences do this a bit more in future as "keynotes" can often be dry unless the speaker is really skilled in public speaking and communication strategies.
Seth (yes, we are on first name terms) is so down to earth and authentic that his lessons and insights always resonate. He really just cuts through the noise, telling us to stop trying so hard to "sell average stuff to average people". He raised an interesting point when he said that TV and Radio were actually created to run ads in, but the internet was not. This means that advertising online can often feel annoying, unwanted and forced. A balance must be found between privacy and personalization.
Flying in the face of the established norms, he tells us not to aim for massive scale. "Get selective", says Seth, "and find your tribe. Find people who want to come with you and stop trying to force people into a conversion funnel."
If you are good at what you do, have integrity and passionate about what you do, people will talk about you.
"You will know you are doing well if people miss you when you're gone" sounds simple but is such a powerful message to check in with yourself and ask "what difference am I actually making to people's lives?"
Seth ended with a phrase we won't forget: "Stop trying so hard to convert and try harder to be yourself."
We won't tell you what he said about Clubhouse. You'll have to ask him yourself.
We love video, and if the presenter of this talk, Chris Erthel, was correct, then so do you. We all know video is king when it comes to content, but it was great to hear a bit more about what really appeals to us in an age where we are really reaching saturation point with the content coming our way, and all of the things competing for our attention.
We have never liked the clickbait stuff. "You'll never guess what happened next" is not something you will ever see to introduce a NEO video, but we did like some of the ideas in here.
Build suspense with the "heartbeat" technique, which means changing the visual every 1.5 seconds. Definitely effective. Use Humour...also great but what is funny in Germany isn't always raising a smile in Peru, so that can be tricky. Use bold statements and ask questions are again very good suggestions, but certainly not anything new.
Our key takeaway from this was to make sure passion comes through in your video content, and to use the pattern interrupt technique, which is when there is a new twist on the familiar and shows the viewer something they did not expect. Passion is something that should always come through if you really are doing something you care about, and people will be able to see that easily as authentic and unforced in any video. We are neurologically hardwired to detect a false note, such as when politicians pretend to cry on television. Only use passion if you mean it. A new twist on the familiar is also excellent. The brain is very good at pattern prediction, because that kind of thing keeps us alive. When that predicted pattern is broken and something different happens, the pre frontal cortex jumps in to really pay attention and process every aspect of what's happening.
If you want to get someone's attention and get them to remember something and be present with you, get past the lazy brain and talk directly to the boss. The prefrontal cortex is definitely in charge.
Oh, and Chris said the best time to post this was just after lunch. Time zones complicate this a lot, but we'll give this a try. Next week's #NEOchats is coming up at 2pm on Thursday instead of 9am, and we'll tell you if more people watch it.
No, we're not going to start talking about Facebook ads or 2021 updates related to the iOS14 changes. Patrick Wind already did that in his talk, and it was fantastic. We are giving space here instead to say that Patrick himself is a fascinating example of someone who is just out there innovating and doing some things that are worth dedicating a proper discussion to.
We're on it. Very soon, we are going to share the lowdown on an online course created by Patrick, and we're doing this because we are taking this course ourselves, and it is extraordinarily enjoyable. In a world where so many online courses just lack pizzazz and leave us feeling that we should have just done something else with our time and money, this one really works. So check back soon for our reflections on why this learning experience works so well, and what other education institutions might take away from this. Being at Ad World 2021 reminded us just how creative the world of marketing is, and that despite all the noise about funneling and selling, converting, and cajoling, the best thing to do is find something you care about, find others who care about it too, and keep doing it well. The rest will follow.
Future skills. The phrase is perhaps a little redundant now, because the time for these skills is, in fact, already here. Much discussion still focuses on how to prepare learners coming through schools, higher and further education for the automated world of 2030 and beyond.
But what about those of us already making our way through our careers? What happens to the customer service reps being edged out by chatbots and the curriculum designers who can not build digitally and adaptively?
The challenge is broader and deeper than this. Mckinsey's research claims that 30-40% of workers in developing countries will have to change jobs entirely by 2030. It's 2021. The jobs of the future are jobs we can't quite imagine or describe yet, and so have little chance of directly preparing for. The "future" is not in some new dimension some hundreds of years away, but rather right around the next corner.
The change is already well underway. Any tasks that can be predicted and iterated systematically are already gone. The pandemic has accelerated this change as companies adapt to survive, and increasingly turn towards automated solutions for resilience. As Daniel Susskind said in an interview with Time Magazine: "Machines don’t fall ill, they don’t need to isolate to protect peers, they don’t need to take time off work."
First of all, we really do need a better name for them! If you have any suggestions, please do contact us. The thing is that these are already skills in high demand, and they have been part of the human experience for a long time already, just not as part of the traditional mass education systems that prepared us for mass workforce roles and not to become individuals.
Future skills are generally higher order skills that machines are unlikely to be able to do as well as humans, and that also allow us to adapt to an uncertain world which changes so quickly that we cannot predict what will happen.
There is no standard list, but there is no shortage of discussion around them at the very top levels of policy making. From intercultural competence to digital literacy, critical thinking to the capacity for self reflection. These are all higher order skills which allow us to be more cognitively flexible, adapt, learn and collaborate.
Next skills has a good definition:
"Future Skills are competences that allow individuals to solve complex problems in highly emergent contexts of action in a self-organized way and enable them to act (successfully). They are based on cognitive, motivational, volitional and social resources, are value-based and can be acquired in a learning process."
Yes, they can be acquired through learning, and that is important. Not only for the people who are working hard to make sure education systems actually help develop these in learners, but for those of us who are already working, and thinking about how to get ready for the next step in our our social and cultural evolution.
Most organizations and institutions are reactive. How long have we known about the power of technology to enhance and augment learning, redefine ways of working and skyrocket collaborative practice and knowledge sharing? And yet, it took a global pandemic for most organizations to even partially embrace this truth.
The organizations which will survive are already moving. Keeping up to date with developments in technology, conducting skills audits to invest in training, and redesigned roles and structures to allow these future skills to take root and flourish.
Why silo people away on specific projects, without the opportunity to collaborate with others on theirs? Transversal learning, adaptability, and cognitive flexibility come from such horizontal practices. When the next challenge hits, you might just have more chance of reacting quickly and creatively.
Why develop job descriptions top-down when job crafting can open up insights that were hidden, and bring a person's unique skills and abilities to bear on the role they play, as well as co-creating opportunities to develop critical higher-order skills.
Why wait for a decline in business before investing in new technology or streamlining systems? Get ahead of the curve, because implementation is not going to happen overnight. Help your team to see the big picture, involve them in discussions of strategy and share the angles.
With a team who are comfortable with a rolling process of evolutionary change to processes and systems, rather than a team that feels a seismic shock when a new CRM comes in, or part of the sales funnel is taken care of by AI, change might even be welcomed one day, rather than feared. At NEO Academy our model is one of a holistic training approach to optimize an institution's digital marketing and recruitment, but one which empowers the team to develop further and does not leave them dependent on us as gatekeepers to future progress. A bright future together means doing things differently.
The global freelancers, liquid workers, movers and shakers of the world likely have a head start on future skills. Inbuilt in the global freelance approach is persuasiveness, intercultural competence, emotional intelligence, highly evolved adaptability and a near constant uncertainty countered by the growth mindset that thrives in a challenge.
But there are always new challenges, and we must always grow. A study by UpWork found that while 45% of employees in the US were actively upskilling in 2017, the figure for freelancers was 65%. While freelancers are, of course, most likely to pay for such upskilling themselves, the ubiquitous low-cost online courses are rendering that comparison less relevant than 15 years ago.
Opportunities are everywhere, and more and more people are teaching themselves. In areas like coding, for example, why pay for a degree as proof of learning when you can simply present a product of your learning, such as an app, which says this is what I can do. This is an area that will be hugely challenging for higher and further education providers who stay static in the one-to-many knowledge-rich, standardized models of top down instruction. They will not survive easily. Saying yes to a role and then figuring out how to do major parts of it might seem a little reckless, but when you consider that so much is learnable when you have the right skills, it makes more sense. A person who knows how to learn, how to reflect and retrench, how to recover from error and iterate towards success- these are future skills that will take a person wherever they want to go.
There is no way we can leave this topic here. The questions around just how we develop skills such as critical thinking or emotional self-regulation are just too abstract to leave at generalizations.
We will return to explore some of these competencies in detail, and look at how we as individuals might develop them, by formal training or just by going it alone.
Check back to our blog and click on the future skills tag to see more.
geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) has nothing to do with the guy in the Matrix, for a start. We do like his style in the movie, but not enough to name ourselves after him. If you google the word, you'll find that geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) is an oft-used prefix from the Greek "neos" meaning "new" or "recent", but that's not really the whole story either.
You might notice we didn't start by asking what is geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy). That just felt wrong. Perhaps the reason that felt wrong is a good place to start figuring out how to explain just who geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) is.
geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy)started out, as many organizations did, by aiming to do something differently, and meet a need that was not being met. This actually had very little to do with marketing and recruitment, and more to do with a passion for transformative change in education.
At the start, the original idea was to offer education content in "nano" form. Bite-sized and digestible clusters of knowledge and inspiration, that people could use to build their own pathways through various areas of interest.
This was envisaged as the "Netflix of education". A democratic, accessible, affordable complement to traditional education, that people could engage with on their own terms.
That didn't happen. The development of such a platform was just not within easy reach of a startup. But the passion to be part of change and innovation in education remained strong, and has been the driving force of geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) through everything since. We knew that had to form the core of whatever came next.
When you focus all of your energies on education marketing and recruitment, it could be tempting to chase as many clients as possible, build the books, and focus on growth above all else. geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) was a bit different.
When you really genuinely believe in what you do, and that sense of purpose anchors you through all of the decisions you have to make, things tend to go their own path. As a marketing and recruitment consultancy, geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) could, technically, help any education institution to be successful. That, however, is a responsibility. If our purpose is to be part of a positive transformation in education, then we have to make sure that the institutions we support are aligned with that purpose. When you amplify a voice, you should really agree with what that voice is saying.
Saying no. That is the hardest thing to do when you are growing, but sometimes, it has to be done. Working with clients or projects that don't align with your purpose, or core values of trust, integrity, creativity and passion; there has to be a line.
That is not an easy road, but we have always felt it is the right one. When clients and partners tell us that they love working with geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) because "it feels different", this is a compliment we are so happy to hear.
In the world of education marketing and recruitment, we know that certain practices are commonplace. Holding on to your "know how" because other companies will duplicate what you do. Keeping clients dependent on your services by controlling all of the key aspects. There is another way. It seems counter intuitive from a purely business standpoint, to empower your clients to be able to do things themselves, but that is the way we work. When a client tells us they are ready to take over the operations we have helped to set up, we are happy. We have not lost a client, we have succeeded, together.
When we are asked to perform an audit on the existing approaches of a potential client, we do not guard the findings in fear of our work being copied or taken without payment. This is simply the job, and to do something well, you have to let go.
We are not saying this is always the easy way, but the world of education marketing and recruitment should not always create such a culture of mistrust and overly competitive behavior.
Values, integrity, empowerment and relationships- these things matter much more. You may not rocket to stratospheric growth in the first year of operation, but your growth will be sustainable. Partners come to know they can trust you, because there is something at your core, and because you are genuinely invested in their success. This way works for all of us.
geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) without the team is just a name. We work hard, but there is always time to listen to and support others. We fight hard to succeed in our goals, but if something is not right for the team, then it will be dropped without hesitation. The team is everything.
What would be the use of empowering clients if we failed to do the same for our team? Why would we ask for a partners trust if we could not trust each other internally? The thing about purpose, values and passion is- it burns from the inside. These things must go right to the core.
At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) we want to make sure our team feel aligned with our mission, but that they have space to develop their own motivations too. When an opportunity is presented to learn and develop, even if it is uncomfortable, we try to support each other to go for it.
As a liquid team working online, we make sure that much of our work is horizontal. We know what is happening in each other's projects, so that we can share, support and encourage. For as long as our team members wish to walk alongside us, we want them to feel that they belong.
geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) is an education marketing and recruitment consultancy. That's the strapline, but there is a lot more underneath.
We want to walk a different path. We want to support institutions that we really believe in. We want others to succeed, and we want to grow with them, not to drip feed services that never end. We want to really connect with others who feel that same passion, who live and work by their values and are guided by their purpose. If that is you, then please do reach out. To share something with us on our weekly geNEOuschats, to talk more about how we might work together or just to share reflections on what it means to walk your own path in an industry like ours. Whatever the reason to reach out, the invitation is open. Finding your tribe is one of the most important things you can do, and we look forward to connecting with more of you in the months and years to come.
This week we were at the 1st international Education Conference at the Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola, in Peru.
geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy)'s Founder & CEO Alejandra Otero was moderating a discussion with Claudia Rodríguez, MSc, CHIA around a central theme: "The internationalization of higher education in the pandemic era".
As you might imagine, the discussion was lively and full of insight and ideas. Here, we do our best to summarise the main points of what was discussed and the responses to these extremely pressing questions.
A lot of discussion these days circles around whether qualifications are as desirable or necessary as they were 20 years ago. The feeling in conference was certainly that they are still centrally important in their role in reassuring employers of certain quality standards and outcomes. That is something that universities, of course, do very well indeed.
What was clear from the outset, was that skills and competencies are not just important, but of equal importance to the mastery of knowledge in each domain. Employers are looking for graduates who stand out, and shine as individuals with differentiated skills and approaches. There is strength, as ever, in diversity.
Employers are increasingly said to prize the skills of cross-cultural communication, innovation, leadership, and digital literacy for all roles across the board. These are now considered core skills for graduates and in high demand.
The competencies of critical thinking, creativity, resilience and the ability to self motivate were also high on the agenda. Complex problem solving and emotional intelligence were also central. Of course an academic qualification tells us what the person knows, but not what they can do or how they are.
Interviews and selection processes are hugely costly, so employers are increasingly turning to universities to broaden out how they evidence skills and competencies so that the transcripts reflect more of the person and less of the academic competence.
From the discussion around the previous question, the answer to this one will come as no surprise. So much of traditional teaching in many universities has focused on academic credentials. It is understandable that a degree should be taught by someone holding a masters, and a masters course taught by a PhD holder, but there are two issues if we stop there.
The first issue is that if the teacher does not have relevant and recent experience of the professional sector outside the university, they will not be able to help students prepare for it. This does not mean that academics need to combine their teaching with a professional role, but that more links and knowledge sharing with industry is necessary. This is not "guest speakers" and other tokenistic approaches, but rather full knowledge-sharing networks and partnerships with agile and fluid communication between institution and industry. The second issue is the pedagogical support necessary to reach a new generation of learners. Delivering a lecture to a hall packed with 20-year-olds (who could simply google the information if they wanted to have it delivered like this) will just not do. It is no small task to engage learners more actively, to understand the internal motivations of learning and the need to express choice, exert control and engage experientially with the content.
This, however, is critical. We need to understand learning differences, diversity in the classroom, and the fact that many learners in international universities may already have come through an education system that is progressive and learner-centered/directed. Much is expected of an international university which is preparing not just a generation of workers, but engaged and active global citizens who have had opportunities to direct the course of their learning in meaningful ways. This means that investing in pedagogical support and also in a more focused recruitment and selection process will be key.
Internationalization at home (IaH) is defined by the EAIE as "Any international related activity with the exception of outbound student and staff mobility". That is very broad, but this also offers a lot of scope for opportunity.
The typical interpretation is an activity such as summer schools, or inviting guest lecturers or even a guest cohort of students from another country to spend a semester with their host. However, the conference discussed this more broadly as part of an approach to global citizenship.Embedding a more global approach in existing courses sounds like a huge overhaul of curricula, but it need not be so. In any field, whether it is economics and business or engineering and accounting, there is opportunity to look at how things work from varying political, moral, social, spiritual and environmental perspectives. It is not only about examples and case studies, but by engaging students in what their responsibilities are as global citizens. Having a diverse student body helps enormously with having rich discussions around this, but technology makes it easy to partner and connecting with other institutions worldwide. Making sure our students are aware of how their futures connect to the Sustainable Development Goals, and how they can find their place in an inclusive and increasingly global professional world, is an area that the conference agreed was crucially important.
Most of the discussion on this topic centered around digital internationalization. If more students are willing to study an online bachelors, masters or professional degree, and the quality of teaching and learning can grow to support a positive experience, then this opens up the market in a very different way.
The major asset of this is not only a whole new area to consider beyond the campus-based programs, but also the move towards more asynchronous learning. With time zones putting certain learners at a serious disadvantage, there is a strong argument to move outside time-bound delivery of classes. The live events can then be focused more on exploration and discussion, and be offered at different times to suit an international student body.
Not only this, but the lockstep nature of synchronous learning can also be more flexible. Students can pause learning, stretch some modules and condense others to fit their own interests, external pressures, and even managing work and/or family responsibilities at the same time. It remains to be seen whether this shift will mature into a stable new market of students who are willing to study internationally from home, but it does present a huge opportunity to rethink some of the more restrictive structures of higher education within the emerging digital landscape.
This does again mean investing in learning design and pedagogical support as well as more agile technologies but there is no reason this could not also be used for blended format learning even with student who have chosen to study on campus.
Not everyone could agree on this point and no wonder! We are still in the grip of the crisis and, with COVId-19 variants and shifting political reactions worldwide, there is still much uncertainty.
One strong school of thought in the discussion was that, even if higher education will find itself transformed after 2020-1, it will not be because of what we learned when the pandemic started, but rather what we learned when we tried to go back.
This is an interesting time now, as students and teachers have had direct experience in working remotely and, as we return to on-campus classes, they can directly compare how each learning approach and environment suits them. There is a lot of discussions yet to come, and there was a lot of agreement around the need to listen and seek engagement around what comes next.
Some in the discussion felt that people craved "normality" and wanted things to return to the way they were. The on-campus physical experience was discussed as a great rite of passage in a person's life, and something idealized by the generations before. How this will impact behavior is yet to be understood.
The general feeling seems to be: this time of change is not over yet, and it may have hardly begun. Create opportunities to dialogue and listen, measure and learn, and keep an open mind as to how our sector may need to change in the years to come.
The one theme that ran through the conference discussion was wellbeing, community and purpose. We all agreed that the pandemic had given us space to look at the things we take for granted, rediscover the things we appreciate, and remember to value each other and our sense of guiding purpose in education. With that at heart, the rest will come.
Great, you may say. We came here to read about the future of education and you give us frameworks. One thing education is not short on is frameworks. There are frameworks to explain theories, pedagogies, competencies, outcomes and methodologies. There are even frameworks to explain frameworks. But when the OECD, The World Economic Forum and UNESCO all publish frameworks on the future of education, even the most framework-fatigued among us tend to stop and have a look.We are experiencing tremendous uncertainty right now, and the future seems anything but stable. The volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world ahead demands new solutions. Just seven pages into their recent report on "lost learning" from the COVID19 impact, the OECD's own report drops this particular bombshell:
"Results from OECD's PISA assessments show that there was no real overall improvement in the learning outcomes of students across OECD countries over the last two decades, with no pandemic, and despite many educational reforms and rising expenditure"
Learners have not necessarily "lost" learning during the pandemic. Learning happens all around us in myriad ways, and is not the sole province of schools and universities. What is perhaps true is that learners have lost progress towards outcomes which have already stagnated for 20 years regardless of circumstances.While grass roots learning theorists, agitators and thought leaders all clamor for change, two in five UK K-12 teachers say they will quit within a few years, and 55% of US College teachers this year reported seriously considering a change of career or early retirement. Much is changing bottom up through the relentless heroism of teachers and educators and a rising voice of the learner, but what about the view from the very top?We look at how the big three see education in the years ahead, and reflect on what that might mean for our learners in schools and universities.
The OECD's Future of Education and Skills 2030 initiative has come to a head with the dissemination of the Learning Compass. Why a compass? This is a nod to the need for learner agency and self-direction to navigate the challenges of the future. Truthfully, this is an encouraging start.They describe it as "aspirational", and aimed at individual and collective wellbeing. The OECD even acknowledge that this notion of wellbeing goes far beyond "the economic and the material". Are we moving towards ditching the pursuit of GDP in favor of Gross Domestic Happiness, as the Bhutanese have done for a long time? Time will tell.What stands out to us is that they say it is not framed by assessments and rubrics as it acknowledges learning can happen formally and informally anywhere and not just in school. They did just do a 150-page report about the huge extent to which learners "lost learning" by not being in school in 2020-2021, but hey.Let's give this one a chance. There is lots of good in here, even if it does fall short of addressing the wider systems of education that might support its integration. At least there is a focus on agency, wellbeing and crucially, wider community involvement. Have a look and see what you think.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3u1AL_aZjI&ab_channel=EduSkillsOECD
The fourth industrial revolution gets a section all to itself because, well, it is going to change absolutely everything. If education is preparing us for the world ahead and the professions we might follow, we cannot look at this without addressing the impending impact of technology.Technology has been changing our lives for years in numerous ways, but the pace is gathering. The WEF themselves tell us that the change will be exponential, fundamentally altering systems and governance the world over. Got your attention? It has certainly caught our imagination.The video below outlines 4.0 in more depth and detail, but with 50% of current jobs becoming automated by 2030, AI, VR, augmented reality and big data changing the way we learn and interact, education must be ready for this come what may. How does it effect education?
In a world of uncertainty, and where the jobs that will exist cannot currently be even imagined, we need to let go of our focus on knowledge and standardized testing. We need a focus on skills and competences and lifelong, liquid learning. Knowledge quickly becomes obsolete, but skills grow. Knowing something is great until it becomes useful, but knowing how to learn will serve you whatever comes around the corner.Any institution or organization that is not preparing learners in this way, creating space for learner-directed problem solvers and cognitively flexible adaptive thinkers, is not ready for the future. Dr John Baruch agrees, as he will tell you in this video about educating for the 4th industrial revolution.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l_THuN9QxE&ab_channel=TEDxTalks
UNESCO has a broader scope for the future of education, and a bolder one too. Full disclosure: the report will not be finished until November 2021, but we already know the parameters.The grammarians among us may have noted the plural use of "futures", and thought we had simply typed this pre-coffee. In fact, it is a deliberate acknowledgement that there are many possible futures as we enter uncertain waters.The age of the third industrial revolution did cause us a few small problems such as the wholesale destruction of our planet, and the idea that our education systems were basically factories to prepare learners for a future of contribution to the economy and the grand old GDP. Thanks.These times were, however, somewhat linear.
There was a vague sense of predictability. Governments fell, but others took their place. Economies collapsed, but bounced back. Not so with the next thirty years. The threat to our world through climate change is existential, and the changes through technology and shifting socio-political currents will need careful navigation.UNESCO has reached out broadly for evidence-based thinking on how we meet this world. And this means the whole world, rather than the privileged alone. They have asked the question "what do we want to become", and how learning can support that.In such pressing times we were disappointed to learn that the report's publication leads not directly to a global policy agenda but...a global debate! The policy comes after, and so we must remain patient. Take a look below at their vision. We admit, it gives us some sense of hope.https://youtu.be/7865y7hbehY
It is time for big ideas, but we also need action. At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) we talk every week to people in education all over the world, and we see such a push towards change from the bottom up. The view from the very top, it would appear, is beginning to swing around to agree with the changemakers and dreamers that advocate for a total transformation of education systems with great urgency. Companies are already on board, and have known for a long time that education needs a serious injection of the real world.In the middle, we have the policymakers at government level, and the heads of accreditation bodies. What must they think with change swirling all around them? When these scattered voices become a chorus, we may just find the harmony we seek. Will you add your voice to ours?
