The World of Education and the World of Work do not show the necessary connection to be more productive and reach ...
The World of Education and the World of Work do not show the necessary connection to be more productive and reach higher levels of competiveness. Debates look into the future, but actions are clang to the past. Citizens are also looking.
By Martín Padulla for staffingamericalatina
Latin America is living a very special year. In a few days, the G20 Leaders Summit will be developed in Buenos Aires, the first event of its kind in South America.
During the entire year, task forces have met to develop public policies recommendations to move around a very challenging future ensuring inclusion and equal opportunities based on education and the work of the future.
The Civil 20 (C20) has recommended to develop quality public policies that guarantee equal opportunities for young people and acknowledge the diversity of professional experiences and mentoring systems that make sure young people graduate from school. It has stated that the education system must acknowledge issues such as teenage maternity/paternity, the barriers that women must face, and income systems so that every young person may prioritize education over work. It must include, foster and evaluate socioemotional skills as part of the learning process in every level and modality. They also insisted on the fact that the education system must anticipate occupational training projects that fit the life project that every young person choses. In addition, they have insisted on educational practices as one of the best strategies to articulate the world of work and school contents.
The C20 has made a call on the need of incentive policies for the first job and labour intermediation with tutoring systems in which schools, social organizations and actors from the productive sector endorse these career paths and avoid reproducing vicious circles due to lack of social capital.
Meanwhile, in Cordoba, young people gathered for the Y20 and presented a number of recommendations on public policies for the Leaders’ Summit that will be developed next month. They announced the Social Innovation Warehouse (SIW), an international bank of scalable projects that can be replicated and were designed as an input for governments and organizations that seek to innovate in public policies for young people.
The debate among young people was based on four issues linked to the future: the Future of Work, Skills for Education in the 21st century, Sustainable Development, and Entrepreneurship.
Think Tanks gathered in Buenos Aires during the T20 and, under the idea of debating about the “Future of Work and Education for the Digital Era”, they focused on skills’ development for the 21st century and educational financing.
Taking as a reference the Goals for Sustainable Development of the United Nations, particularly no. 4, which aims at “guaranteeing inclusive and quality education for everyone and promoting permanent learning” (United Nations, 2017), they claimed that this is only possible with long term and constant support.
The T20 agenda includes the consideration of universal access to quality education, which is a major step forward as it enables thinking on the future of educational systems and their policies from a global and collaborative perspective. We still face pending 19th century challenges, such as the fact that 57 million children do not attend school.
The T20 recommendations also refer to the so called “learning crisis”: children who attend school but do not have deep learning experiences. According to the Global Education Monitoring Report of UNESCO, 130 million children attend primary school, but they cannot read, write or solve basic mathematic problems (2014).
This task force provided recommendations to analyze opportunities that emerge from the new relationship that exists among technological changes, work and education in the 21st Century. The digital age has unveiled new perspectives and questions about learning, teachers’ professional development and certifications, among many other dimensions of educational policy.
They stated something that we have been saying for years in these columns and in different forums throughout Latin America: education systems must include social and labour demands in school practices to guarantee that students, particularly those who come from vulnerable households, develop the skills they need to participate in their local economies and democracies.
Highorder thinking skills, such as creativity and critical thinking, will face a growing demand as a result of digitalization and technological innovations, and the educational system must adapt quickly.
I thought one of the recommendations made by this group was very interesting, and it is the one that states that G20 leaders must work and collaborate to guarantee that education regulatory frameworks, together with a large scale reforms agenda, turn into realistic and feasible action plans. The connection with the real world, real stuff, coming back to earth in a debate that sometimes seems fruitless.
Is it possible to change from top to bottom? For instance, can we use public policies to encourage young and adult women to follow tertiary courses in high technology areas, as well as on other subjects that promote digital transformation, alter society, and generate greater risks of social exclusion? Will universities and education institutions do this? Are they willing to innovate? Do they really want to cancel the debts of the 19th and the 20st century to finally enter the 21st century? Are companies willing to commit?
Businessmen also gathered during the B20, worked on eight tasks forces and suggested guidelines they consider key: promoting equal opportunities and inclusion; fostering economic growth, and guaranteeing the sustainable use of resources and actions to face climate change.
Aligned with the UN Goals for Sustainable Development, they suggest creating jobs and providing quality education, developing infrastructure, enabling a suitable environment to create micro, small and medium enterprises, and guaranteeing equal opportunities for everyone, focusing on gender equity and on the inclusion of vulnerable sectors.
In terms of employment and education, they have stated that “employability must be a key component in education systems” and made a call to “develop a “learning to learn” model that helps our population to be open to the future and to continuous learning”.
As regards structural issues, they also picked up a concept we have been stating for years: “open, dynamic and inclusive labour markets, with simple, transparent, flexible and predictable regulatory frameworks, which enable diverse forms of work, are key for inclusion”. About 75% of the action plans proposed by the B20 can be implemented on a national level, while the remaining 25% must be discussed and implemented in multilateral forums.
Finally, workers organizations gathered in Mendoza during the T20 and developed a document that states that “fast technological changes demand new regulations and employment investments, as well as a proper framework for a fair transition that guarantees full employment”.
Union leaders highlighted the importance of “reducing legal frameworks for platform workers” and “developing today the skills of tomorrow”.
Deborah Greenfield, ILO Deputy Director, said “we are failing to reduce informality, gender gaps remain and there is an entire generation of young people who struggle to find decent work. The dominant model is not inclusive, and, therefore, it is not sustainable”.
The recommendations made by the different task forces provide common perspectives regarding the diagnosis and implementation of certain policies on a macro level, but, what about social actors in a micro level? I think that consensus tend to disappear on this level, diagnosis are not clear, resistance to change becomes evident and the past emerges.
The political agenda that can modify old fashioned regulatory frameworks is not fully focused on this, and energy is used on debating the past; an important share of the academic world resists to change and questions whether it is really important to develop skills for the labour market; several companies show short-sighted visions and do not focus on productivity, competitiveness, and innovation; and union leaders develop strikes that prevent children and young people from attending classes, clinging to a concept of work that belongs to the 1950s and no longer exists.
We are facing a change of an era that demands a cultural change. It all seems to show that if we manage to live up to the circumstances, it will be possible due to a bottom-up change, becoming involved, participating, transforming (ourselves). Cultural changes are based on deep social processes. The most important could be that one that emerges from a deep representativeness crisis, in which political, business or union groups are no longer held accountable by representatives, but by citizens.
If we do not change, nobody will be able to articulate this change for us. School, university, judges, the parliament, politicians, enterprises or the G20 will not transform our societies. This call has not been made by any task force: it is essential and urgent.
About Martin Padulla
Founder and Managing Director of staffingamericalatina. Martin Padulla is Sociologist (USAL), MBA (UCA) and labour markets expert. He published “Flexible Work in South America” and “Regulatory framework for private employment agencies in Latin America” two books about the new realities of work in Latin America. He is working on the project #FOWiberoamerica.
Follow Martín Padulla on Twitter: @MartinPadulla
mpadulla@staffingamericalatina.com
About staffingamericalatina
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