48 #geNEOuschats later and here we are, reflecting back on a year of enriching conversation with a broad array of people who care deeply about education, and about the people who are involved with it. Whether you watched some of the videos, or listened to the audio on Spotify, we are glad you were there with us.
So why do we do it? Well, we already wrote about that this year in detail, but here it is in a nutshell. geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) is not just an education marketing consultancy, but also a community. We believe that education has to change and move forward, that it needs to adapt to a fluid world and new challenges that transcend the old industrial era model of education with lockstep learning and a focus on employability in jobs we can't even predict yet anyway!
That can be a difficult path. Most people we find are quite open to the possibility of change, but few are actually doing something about it. We find ourselves drawn to the people, organizations and movements who are out there pushing for change. Life is short, the world is changing fast, and we need to be around those from whom we can draw inspiration and to whom we can provide support.
And that's it. We are guided always by passion, purpose and values, and they haven't led us wrong yet. We think this is reflected in the conversations we have every week, and it seems you feel the same way. Though some of our latest #geNEOusChats haven't had much time to rack up the view count, we have rounded up the top 7 most popular #geNEOusChats this year.
Why 7? Well, you are tired, and seven pieces of information is about the magic number in terms of what the working memory can hold, before your brain turns to (Christmas) pudding. Actually, the research says it's 7 "plus or minus 2" but that's not very catchy, so here we are.
If you joined us later on in 2021, this is a good way to see what you missed. Oh, and where were you?! Just kidding- you got here in the end, and that's what counts. If you have been with us all the way but missed some of the content, then you might enjoy starting with these as well. We are so incredibly grateful for all our guests this year, and for the shared sense of journey we felt in speaking with them. Ok, here we go.
Kimmo is many degrees warmer than the place he lives! A compassionate and committed professional, who is Head of Global Education Solutions at Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Kimmo just loves a good chat about all things education.
We could have picked several topics and Kimmo would have much to offer on any of them. In fact, Kimmo just won the EAIE President's Award for "remarkable work and dedication to international higher education", so you can imagine that he is involved in many different areas of the sector.
But this was back at the very start of the year, where the sun rarely shone, and both teachers and learners were fatigued and overwhelmed in adapting to a new reality. If you were (or still are) adapting to the new hybrid or remote learning environment, this is a good one to pick, as Kimmo takes us through how his team have coped.
You know how you sometimes meet someone and then see their job role and think "hmmm...that's a weird fit"? We didn't think that with Alex. In fact, as Lead Teacher of Innovation in Teaching and Learning at Shaftesbury School, Alex could not be in a more perfect role.
Follow him on LinkedIn and you will see for yourself. Each and every week, Alex is gobbling up all things revelatory in EdTech and learning design, and is as committed to research and innovation as he is to each and every learner under his care.
We talked over how to lead innovation from within an institution, but also dug in deep to some of the specific projects he is involved in. We could actually do a #geNEOuschats with him every week, and it would always be new and refreshing, as that's the speed he seems to operate at. Need a bit of energy and inspiration at K-12? You know what to do.
We've been following Loni for ages. Her authenticity and sincerity shine through everything she does, and this #geNEOuschats was no different. Loni is Co-Founder of Imagine If in Denmark, but they work well beyond the Danish borders. Loni's expertise is in Project Based Learning, and if you have any interest or curiosity in this whatsoever, you need to go follow what Loni is up to.
In this chat, we look at how Loni's disillusionment with more traditional and static approaches to education sparked a journey that has taken her to the forefront of a movement to bring PBL and purposeful, inclusive learning into as many learning environments as possible. Is this a "Trojan Horse" for wider systemic change? Find out below!
This is one of those chats when it felt like we put the world to rights. Filip is an academic, but also an activist, campaigner, consultant and a dedicated lifelong learner. We ranged all over the map in this #geNEOuschats, reflecting on where education is going, and how information literacy and access affects the way in which we develop as humans.
Filip is a guy who knocks on doors and breaks down barriers by simply getting people together to ask why we do what we do, and what we might do better.
This is an interesting one! The thing is that this is our least "educationy" #geNEOusChats. That said, it came at a time when people were ground down the rolling lockdowns and the shifting sands of education as the world reverberated in response to closed campuses, reduced mobility and remote learning.
Avigail is a psychotherapist, and the more you dig into her interests and expertise, the more you realize that this is a person who has found her calling and is on a mission to get the word out. That word is integration. Avigail takes us on a journey through our own brains to figure out what is happening through fear, anxiety and self-doubt, and how the answer to moving out of this limbic state lies in another part of our brain- the prefrontal cortex.
Sound unattainable? We would not have had so much positive feedback on this if that were true. In this chat, Avigail takes us through how we integrate these two parts of the brain, and embrace (not suppress) our natural and healthy responses to adversity. Empowering stuff. Take a look!
Bertrand is soft-spoken, understated and considered. He would quite happily talk about yoga, Buddhism and personal reflection and growth, but he was also Chief Commercial Officer at Studyportals for many years and now chairs the European Association for International Education's Marketing and Recruitment Steering Group. Our conversation somehow bridged these disparate topic areas, and opened even more. That tells you something about Bertrand, but do click to find out the rest.
It's rigged! Surely the Founder of geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) can't be in the top ten #geNEOusChats of 2021? Well yes, actually, and here is why. Alejandra has an unwavering sense of purpose that has led her in a different direction to so many of her peers in the world of education marketing.
In starting geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) and growing it to what it has become today, Alejandra has done a few things that have had others scratching their heads; saying NO to big contracts, refusing to work as a "marketing agency" and generally just doing things from a sense of purpose and not listening to the noise. Whatever role or sector you work in, this #geNEOusChats is for you, as it is all about listening to that innate sense of direction and staying true to it, no matter what.
Oh, and there were so many more. We invite you to check them out on our website, and reach out to them to connect. Again, THANK YOU to every single person who took part, watched, shared, liked or just lurked.
This is a growing community of passionate individuals and organizations, and sharing is what we do. Would you like to share your story with us in 2022? Reach out, say hello and let's get something in that new 2022 diary of yours.
"Education for all" has been a popular slogan since the 1980s, when the World Bank launched its international initiative to make sure every single world citizen had access to education. For some, this may conjure up images of gap-year teachers bringing "western" education to sub-Saharan schools before they head back to Cambridge or Melbourne. Truly bringing education to the whole world, however, requires more than band-aid solutions.
More than half of children in low and middle income countries in the Asia Pacific region cannot read by age ten. The World Bank has set the goal of every child being literate by age ten because "a lack of foundational literacy skills in the early grades can lead to intergenerational transmission of poverty and vulnerability." The Covid-19 crisis has further weakened these efforts to end learning poverty, as so many children have lost out on almost an entire year of education, without access to digital connectivity or learning resources.
The Future of Learning report focuses efforts quite squarely on improving the quality of teaching and learning as a means to close the learning poverty gap. Making sure teachers are well-trained, that learning is personalized and based on progressive pedagogies, are just some of the key areas which will receive more attention and greater funding, but the report barely mentions technology.
How will the learner in rural Ecuador be affected by the next pandemic around the corner, if they still have no remote access to education? How will teachers be trained in Tonga, where less than half the population have access to internet? What role does EdTech play in bridging the equity gap and making sure that, regardless of the education system around them, learners can access education on their own terms?
Without an internet connection, the Khan Academy is, well...the Can't Academy. It all begins with access, and this is not only an issue in rural and remote parts of the world.
Sioux City in Iowa is not the Parvati Valley in India. Far from remote, it is a well-connected urban centre with a mature digital infrastructure that supplies homes, schools and businesses.
Yet in a single school district, a survey found that 300 children did not have internet access. Overall in Sioux City, around 70% of children had reliable internet access at home. During a pandemic, that means 30% of the poorest families fall behind in education, widening a gap that was already difficult to close.
School leaders managed to address this by increasing the Wi-Fi hotspots on campus, in the school bus, and even installing some in local trailer parks which housed some of the lowest income families. One school had a chat with local café owners to ask if they would mind "being friendly" to their students who came to do homework on the café Wi-Fi; something which grew into a community social initiative.
Outside the urban centers, the issue is more acute. Only 6% of Filipinos in low income areas have access to reliable internet connections, and almost a million have no access whatsoever. The government is exerting more pressure in telecommunications companies to let them know that they can't just focus connectivity on the wealthy areas where they can make most profit. To access those areas, they must provide service to the more remote areas of the country. Though the strategy is having a positive impact, the country still ranks 86th worldwide for internet connectivity.
This greater coordination between public and private sectors seems to be the best strategy of improving global access to the internet, but what happens when that connection is established?
Education does not just magically happen when the Wi-Fi appears, but learners are able to intuit the use of technology without much supervision. A decade ago, the Hole in the Wall project showed us what happened when a computer was installed in the street in an urban slum in New Delhi.
Over the days and weeks after installation, cameras observed children iterating their way to learning how to use the technology. There was no support, no instructions, no supervision. What came to be later referred to as "Minimally Invasive Education" showed children teaching themselves and then each other how to send emails, save files, navigate social media and a host of other functions. Learning the technology itself, it seems, is not as much of a barrier to digital education as we may have suspected.
Of course, not every street has a communal computer, and programs such as the One Laptop Per Child have spectacularly failed to achieve real traction. The author, Morgan Ames put this as "the failure to locate technological opportunity within real contexts: real schools, real children, real families, real communities; real people with real hopes, real problems and real behaviors; real countries with real challenges of funding and of governance."
Ames concluded that, as with internet connectivity, the best hope of improving levels of device ownership was in partnership between private organizations and public or governmental bodies.
So when we have access, and device in hand, what next?
In Ghana, only 62%of teachers have received the minimum training to work in a school. That is 50,000 teachers who are doing their best, but have not yet had access to training support. The government just cannot get there without support, and has partnered with the International Digital Publishing Forum and Sesame Workshop, the Non Profit organization behind the Children's TV show Sesame Street.
Together, they aim to reach all of Ghana's teachers with an interactive TFET platform (Techniques for Effective Teaching), with the right to intervene in quality standards now part of Ghanaian law.
In Ecuador, Kipa are a private project working in partnership with the Ministry of Education and other bodies private and public to not only bring broadband connectivity to rural areas, but to ensure that there is ready access to education when the connection goes live. They work with organizations such as Khan Academy in Spanish and PhET Interactive Simulations to ensure that learners do not need to wait on formalized support from teachers and schools in hard-to-reach areas.
In the UK, the Connect The Classroom initiative which aims to improve Wi-Fi access in every classroom, has drawn in a range of EdTech hardware and software partners to help enrich the learning when the tech work is done. In the US, the Close the Gap Foundation helps engineer bespoke learning solutions together with each unique community, partnering with local and global EdTech providers, specialists, individuals and private funders to create solutions and make sure everyone has access to learning.
geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy)'s mission is simple. We work with partners who positively align with our core values of trust, integrity and creativity, to raise their voice. We are committed to doing our bit to help meet Sustainable Development Goal 4: quality education. Partners who we believe play a positive role in the future of education. If you work in EdTech (private or NGO) and would like to share your story of how your organization improves access and quality in education, then get in touch to see how we can help.
Everywhere we turn in the face of the digital access and connectivity challenge, it is clear that no one entity, organization or individual has the solution. We must work together to ensure that future generations are not left behind.
The pandemic has changed things for international students, and the details are now beginning to emerge as to just how that new landscape looks. ICEF monitor reported back in February 2021 that there was an increasing concern around the already acute worry over affordability, with international; students already often paying more than their domestic counterpart.
This naturally has led to an increased focus on getting a job, both during and after studies. Students, rattled by the instability of the Covid-19 pandemic, want some assurances that this will all be worth it. ICEF monitor stated that careers services and the ability to work while studying, were going to be more important than ever.
One question remains, however. With all of these assurances of increasing importance to the international student, who will they turn to? In a time when trust in online reviews and organizational claims is at an all-time low, the new generations of students want authenticity, and that means they want to speak to someone they can relate to.
The November 2021 ICEF study said "43% believe it would reduce their worries if they were able to ask questions to current international students at the university". Enter the student ambassador.
In a digital first environment, the student ambassador is often tasked with giving online tours, being present in chat groups, hosting virtual welcome sessions, and all the rest of it.
A very quick review of the literature will give you a consistent narrative about the efficacy of the student ambassador in Higher and Further Education Institutions. That narrative is, roughly speaking:
All good. We are not going to even disagree with any of that, but something is changing. With our ear to the ground in education, we are starting to see a shift in the perception of student ambassadors, and here is what we suspect:
We have written about this before but we will say it here again - Generation Alpha are different. This new generation appearing at our doors, portals, fairs and taster sessions...well...they still want the hard facts about programs, prospects costs and content from their institutions, but the decision is an emotional one above all.
How will I fit in? Will I belong here, and does this place feel like somewhere I can invest in? Is it authentic, and how do I know what the experience of studying here is really like? These are the decision points, when you are still in the running after the initial cost and content comparison, it is here that the decision will be made.
It must be tough for an institution to fully trust in really supporting prospective students to communicate with current and former students in an unscripted environment. We get that.
Nevertheless, this is the future. If your institution truly is all the things the brochure says it is, then trust in that, and let students talk to each other. A conversation with a student ambassador will never really feel like the inside scoop in those "post truth" world where we are learning to question everything. As the art of the influencer becomes ever more subtle, where do we find the raw facts beyond the spin?
Campus connect is an outlier in this new field of peer networking at the post-application phase. Managed by the university of college, prospective students can enter this digital space after their application has been submitted. Applicants can then find people they want to talk to, whether it is someone who is from their own region or country, or perhaps studying the same specialization they want to.
In a recent #geNEOusChats with Declan Sweeny, Campus Connect Co-Founder, we explored the thinking behind this space. They have found that "96% of applicants who connect with someone on their same subject/course go on to enroll at the admitting university" because they begin to build that sense of belonging and security before they actually begin.
That first bit sounds like a really bad T-shirt slogan ("live your brand"....ugh!) but happens to be good advice. There is nowhere to hide the downsides of your institution any more. If you are acting in accordance with your values, true to your word and open about what you still need to work on, then your institution is in with a good chance of survival in this age of great change.
If you are still trying to funnel prospective purely students to a polished pitch at a fair, or a lovely brochure with curated images, then there’s work to do. New generations are ready to do their own thinking, and ask their own questions to those they trust and can relate to. That brochure is really nice, but it's rising further up the funnel with every passing year.
Education is emotional and it is personal. The world is no longer full of linear certainties of positive destinations and predictable career paths. Decisions are ultimately going to be made in a space you can no longer control, and the institutions who embrace that are embracing the future.
What would it look like to combine a classical education with purposeful self-directed enquiry? The Socratic Experience is a unique online learning environment which has sparked our curiosity. Join us in our #NEOchats with Founder Michael Strong, as we find out how Socrates and the SAT can get along just fine.
This year, we have been writing a lot about our hopes for what education might look like, to be fit for purpose in a challenging and uncertain world. We have also had conversations each and every week with people working in education, innovating and raising questions and ideas about its approach and purpose.
Certain beliefs we held at the start of 2021 have become firmer, some have shifted, evolved, adapted. That is what being a lifelong learner is about; we hold our opinions lightly and keep the door to conversation wide open. There are, however, certain themes and questions that run through what we hear from almost every person pushing for positive change in education, whether they are within the traditional system now, or have planted their flag outside it.
As you read these, we invite you to reflect on what you believe, and to what extent your institution is asking or seeking to address these questions.
This has come up a lot in our #geNEOusChats series this year. People like Raheen Fatima, Bertrand Laborde and geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy)'s own Alejandra Otero made it clear that the core of everything they did in life, came from asking "why?". How often do we ask ourselves this as organizations? Why is it we live and work the way we do? Who is it for? Are we really opening ourselves up to reflection?
In one of our most recent #geNEOusChats, Paul Haras said that getting to "why" was the most challenging part of his job to lead pedagogical innovation in his school. It is a question we rarely ask ourselves; perhaps because we think the answer is obvious, but in fact is buried beneath layers of experiences and routine thinking that need to be unpacked.
As Simon Sinek said in his book "Start With Why":
"If a company does not have a clear sense of WHY then it is impossible for the outside world to perceive anything more than WHAT the company does. And when that happens, manipulations that rely on pushing price, features, service or quality become the primary currency of differentiation.”
It is not just about making sure your purpose is clear and your administrators and teachers are on board and feel part of it, but that it can be communicated to other stakeholders; learners of course being at the very centre.
Jennifer Groff told us that many schools are aware of the OECD framework of "future skills" but are struggling to innovate towards them within the current system. The world ahead needs us to be creative, adaptable resilient, critical thinkers and all the rest of it, but these are skills we ourselves perhaps learned through experience. So how do we support their development in education?
One thing, for sure, is that exams don't help. As measures of who we are and what we can offer, we could barely conceive of a worse way to demonstrate this than an exam. Innovators like Lift Learning are supporting institutions to understand how skills and competences can be developed within curricula, and also meaningfully reflected as evidence of learning.
Learners will not get the skills to thrive in the future by facing a lecture, taking summative exams with no feedback, being asked to regurgitate knowledge to claim mastery of it, or generally by having no say in where they take their own learning next. Learners of all ages can be leaders, and can captain their own ships, according to Katrin Mengardon.
We should ask ourselves if what we are doing truly helps learners develop the skills they need. And then, we should ask them.
Money? Job title? Good grades?
What is it we are holding up as an ideal? Kimmo Kuorti told us the education system requires a wellbeing culture at its heart. If we do not prize our own wellbeing and that of others first, then learning cannot thrive. Being able to prioritize these things is surely a measure of success, in a world that erroneously prizes overworking and busy-ness.
We might also ask "who" does success look like? The levers of power seem to be held overwhelmingly by older white men, but yet that is not the way the world looks. Marc Hamanna told us that there is such strength in diversity, and the most successful organizations recognized that and built teams that prized neurodiverse, culturally diverse, gender diverse environments. Katrina Walker told us that she wanted to change the male-dominated culture of tech by starting with equity of access to education.
Can your learners see people who reflect them as ideals and role models? How can you ensure not only staff and student diversity, but also equity of access and a curriculum that reflects diversity too?
Education institutions often project the benefits of their courses and offers, by saying things like "helping you succeed in your future career" or "equipping you with the skills for tomorrow".
Really? Really really? That was a bit easier 30 years ago when career paths were a little more linear, and the world (in the developed economies at least) was fairly predictable. Mainstream education is set up to favor specialization, where we build towards a narrowing area of deeper knowledge in a subject. Degree-masters-PhD.
But what about the generalists? The people we need to connect the dots and make connections outside linear paths of learning? Louka Parry told us that he feels the world needs such individuals, but does education support this? Interdisciplinary programs Like those at the London School of Economics are not the norm.
Alex More told us that he feels transversal learning should begin at University level, and he may be right. But even in High Schools, we find innovations like The Socratic Experience, which has been able to de-silo subjects and create cross-disciplinary learner-directed enquiry and still operate within the metasystem of SAT's and all the rest of it.
The walls between subjects are artificial and do not exist in real life. Are we doing enough to reflect that truth?
Climate change is not threatening the world... the world will be just fine. Humans, however, will disappear. We have only been here for a short time, and we have made a real mess of things.
But yet climate change and sustainability are only lightly peppered through education. A workshop here, a campaign there, a mention in this class, and maybe a project in that one. Komal Shah tells us that we need more consciousness in education, and we agree.
Being conscious of how climate change will affect every single aspect of our lives in the years to come is something we must develop. And where is this in the core of education? How can we develop a conscious connection with our biosphere and an empathic bond with future generations? Where lies the responsibility of education in supporting this to flourish?
Climate change education is something we will explore more in 2022, but we can say here and now that the next generation of learners will expect us to be talking about this, embedding sustainability in all aspects of education and the operation of our institution, so we must ask ourselves now: what are we doing about it?
We have learned so much from our community this year, and more on this to come! However, there is more to explore, more voices to amplify, and more questions to ask. To talk to us about arranging a #geNEOusChats with you (or just a regular chat), please reach out and we will be in touch.
With our interest (and support for) Diversity Equity and Inclusion in education, and STEAM subjects as an agent of positive change for the future, it is not surprising that CodeOp was a powerful draw for the geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) Team.
CodeOp, based in Barcelona, is a "tech school that offers courses for women+ (inclusive of trans and non-binary)... dedicated to changing the culture of tech and focus on providing our community with the support and training they need to become leaders in their field".
Now you may already be as intrigued as we were because, quite frankly, this is not common. In fact, that is kind of the point, as we would later learn. We dropped by their (very cool) learning space in Gracia, Barcelona, to meet the team and find out more.
Here is what we found out.
It does, right? There are coding schools and bootcamps out there, and some of them are even actively trying to address the chronic gender imbalance in tech, but few are addressing it so directly. The community of women-only coding schools and bootcamps is vanishingly small, and for women+, the field narrows further.
In the US, there are already a number of legal challenges to institutions offering women only scholarships in STEAM, and thought it is clear that women+ are critically underrepresented in the tech space, there are many out there who say that offering certain opportunities only to women is unfair and discriminatory.
So right from the start, CodeOp stands out. More importantly, however, it stands up. Katrina Walker, CEO and Founder of CodeOp, told us that if we want the gender gap to close, and we want the tech culture to change, we need to take much bolder action.
Let's look at the facts. Are you ready for some numbers?
We could go on. Pay, burnout, promotion...in every indicator you care to choose, women come out at a disadvantage, and the intersection of race, disability, or gender nonconformity only compounds that inequality.
It's not getting much better. Tech jobs are increasing far quicker than average rates for employment, and it is very clear that this industry is to become the dominant force of our times. Excluding anyone in our society from the opportunities this presents, is simply not on. We need to do something different, and we cannot just wait for long, drawn-out initiatives to take root.
CodeOp has something different in mind.
Tech is far too male dominated, and we have to imagine how that feels. Women+ are looking at the industry and seeing few leaders that look like them, or cultures that support who they are and what they have to give. Anyone who thinks the gender imbalance in tech is because women are simply "less interested" or that tech "appeals less" to them, is guilty of a word which CodeOp introduced us too in their recent job advert: dickheadery.
We had a long discussion about this with Ejiro Oviri, Head of Growth and Brand Content at CodeOp. Ejiro talks about "reaching out" to actively find and meet women+ in the community who may need some encouragement to come forward and feel supported in their transition into tech.
The partnership with the women-first dating app Bumble, to create the Bumble Tech Academy was a perfect fit. This program aims to address the unique obstacles faced by women+ (with no previous coding experience) who want to break into tech, with a goal to remove as many of these obstacles as possible.
These first steps into the tech space are make or break, and with Bumble offering a job opportunity as a junior software developer to each person who completes the bootcamp, the program ensures that all angles are covered.
Transition into tech does not mean supporting women+ to build their passion and talent, and then failing to support them in finding that first job. In fact, trainees receive an annual salary of €25,000 over the training period, so the financial barrier is also removed. The support at CodeOp is full stack.
Tech needs to get over its gender issues, and it needs to reflect the community it is supposed to serve. Whatever we have been doing up to now to make tech more diverse, inclusive and equitable in access is clearly not working. CodeOp are trying something direct, and judging by their growth, employability stats and learner feedback, it is clearly working.
When education serves a social purpose, and addresses a social need, we're all in. When incremental change fails to close a widening gap, bold change is needed. Women+ belong in all spaces, and with their online, blended and on-site bootcamps, CodeOp are not trying to fit in, but in their words, to "change the culture of tech worldwide".
CodeOp is yet another example of the partnerships we seek out through geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy). By investing our energies in helping certain organizations to thrive, we understand our responsibilities in amplifying only the voices which speak of a better future. We believe in CodeOp, and their vision for a more inclusive future where women+ can feed that foiled, creative fire.
Thank you to the CodeOp team for making us feel welcome, and for sharing your story with us. To find out more about them, go check their website and say hello.
COP26 feels different, don't you think? The Paris Conference in 2015 was hailed as a great success, but 6 years later, we are still looking at the same story; too little too late. This time, it feels a little more serious to us, and there's more substantive discussion in all sectors about how we can support a more sustainable future.
Education, it will not surprise you to hear, plays an enormous role in this. The skills and knowledge we need to meet future challenges are largely in the hands of schools, colleges and universities, so there is pressure on our sector to get it right.
This also signals a change for those of us in marketing. Generation Alpha cares deeply about climate change, and will want to see real commitment to sustainability from education institutions, as well as course offerings which help them prepare for a world they have been told since day one will be challenging and uncertain. Enter Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
Let's ask the folks who came up with it. UNESCO tells us that ESD:
"empowers learners of all ages with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to address the interconnected global challenges we are facing, including climate change, environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity, poverty and inequality"
They also say that learning should be "transformative" and "allow us to make informed decisions and take individual and collective action to change our societies and care for the planet".
So basically, ESD means we are done with going to university, school or college just to get knowledge that will help us get a job. This is because (a) knowledge alone is not enough, and we can get a lot of that without going to an institution anyway, (b) because it is now very hard to predict what jobs will be most in demand in 10 years time and (c) we need real skills that will help us navigate a world with rapid socio-climactic breakdown and dizzying technological advances.
The purpose of education is evolving, the demands and expectations of learners are changing, and all of it is unpredictable, fluid and volatile.
This is huge. If we read between the lines here, it means that the old way of awarding degrees (and charging high fees to attend campus-based classes) is clearly insufficient. How can we meet such a huge global challenge if education continues to be offered only to those who can afford it?
This means the online, flexible learning offer has to be a key component of the offer. We will see this demand for flexibility from students who learn across time zones, while juggling family and jobs, and who need access to learning on their terms. Degrees themselves may be broken into smaller, micro credentialed learning pathways. Who wants to commit to four years of fixed learning pathways when the world keeps changing?
All of this is challenging for marketers who have developed well-honed approaches to marketing fixed learning offers with a reasonable idea of employability and career pathways afterwards, and who now begin to enter a world where the offer begins to change.
However, even for traditional school, university and college course offers, things will have to change. A greater emphasis on the skills and competences than just contents and components is a clear shift in the way courses will have to be marketed. Learners want to know who they can become, and not just what they can become as a result.
And all of this in as authentic an approach as possible. Values based marketing and social marketing will be key approaches to attract Generation Alpha. Involving prospective learners in the conversation too, rather than marketing to them is also critical; in an age where education needs to change and help individuals find their passion, and develop the resilience and adaptability to deal with the uncertain future, we cannot talk to students as passengers in their own education journey any longer.
Sustainability is not an extra or an add-on. It is not a workshop or an elective, nor a project or a guest speaker. Sustainability must be embedded in the fabric of every part of the education experience at your institution.
In design, we must look at the circular economy and designing products to stay in circulation, or which can be repurposed. In psychology, we must look at the challenges of leading change and inspiring others beyond their comfort zone. In maths, rather than working our how long it takes Johnny to get to Boston by train if its travelling at 68km/h, why not work out how long it will take for the Greenland ice cap to melt at current rates?
These shifts show that you are serious about climate change education and sustainability, but also keep the issues uppermost in the minds of the first generations to truly feel its effects.
In strategy, energy, procurement, travel policy and a host of others, your institution must walk the talk. A false note means Generation Alpha will walk away, and they will find an institution that is not talking sustainability as a PR exercise. This, of course, all feeds into our roles in marketing, as we communicate the impacts and aspirations of our sustainability plans and actions with transparency and humility.
A marketing agency focused squarely on profit and not empowerment will not survive in this new world. A sales-at-all-costs approach that rings hollow and inauthentic will not inspire the next generation of learners to answer your call. These new learners have other options now, and they have other challenges that we have a responsibility to equip them to face. Anything less than true commitment to this is unsustainable.
To talk to a marketing consultancy that is led by purpose, integrity, trust and a commitment to doing things differently, just reach out for a conversation. Education for Sustainable Development is a mouthful to say, but say it we must, loudly and with clarity.
