By Martin Padulla for staffingamericalatina Creating human capital is one of the major goals of a country. There is ...
By Martin Padulla for staffingamericalatina
Creating human capital is one of the major goals of a country.
There is a large debate about economic growth with a human face, also known as the inclusion of every inhabitant in the adventure of development. This sustainable development is only possible through education. But, what kind of education are we talking about?
In Latin America the answer is rather complex. Many countries in the region must address the demands of the 21st century that include innovations and disruptions, but they also need to solve the debts of the 20st century (and even some of the 19th century).
Our efforts must aim to retain youth in education and to prevent school dropouts, while knowing that the main problem of our economies today is to increase the productivity of knowledge workers, and improve their capacity to renew knowledge.
The dynamics of this renovation is imposed by an obsolescence law that is even more drastic that the well-known Law of Moore. Nowadays, the renovation of knowledge occurs every 6 months, three times faster than speed stated in the law created by Gordon Moore, the founder of Intel in 1968.
The speed to unlearn and relearn has become a strategic asset for employability.
How can we reach this phase in a context of such inequality? The first step is to stop thinking about the future with concepts from the past. Teachers of previous generations could expect that what they taught would be useful for their students during their whole life. Today, educational institutions are training young people for jobs that have not been created yet, to use technologies that have not been invented and to solve problems that we cannot even imagine. The future has to be integrated, collaborative and connected with contexts of the real world. For that reason, we cannot keep arguing whether education should communicate with labor, or not. Such communication is a must for the social and economic progress of our countries.
We need professional educators who focus on the future of their students and not on their own pasts; this demands connecting, interacting, collaborating, innovating. They are responsible for transforming schools into spaces of collaboration and creation of ideas. Without innovation, schools are bureaucratic entities that reproduce inequalities.
In order to transform it into a “vehicle” that generates social mobility, we need to urgently debate structural vital issues to guarantee integral and inclusive education, and fundamental operational matters, such as the pedagogic approach.
Even though there are people who think that the conversation between education and labor is not important, this dialogue occurs anyway and in the worst possible way when the school does not manage to retain students and it transforms into child labor. We must not tolerate or get used to this. Transforming it must become a moral duty.
There are voices claiming that programming is the new language of this century. An extension of writing as it is a skill that enables young people to write new things: animations, simulations, interactive stories and videogames. They think of it as a great opportunity to design teaching-learning processes based on motivation, fun, exploration and interactivity.
It is not possible to stimulate critical thinking and creativity with obsolete methods, just as it is not possible to only put a digital blackboard in the classroom. The concept of life-long-learning includes trainers. Unlearning-relearning must start among trainers.
Innovative trainers who can lure, exploit potential and retain talent. They are the social actors who will be able to replicate the logics of the productive world at school, as in the “real world” the main goal of organizations is and will be to attract and retain top talent.
Creating talent means that children start going to school from the age of three in order to overcome any initial disadvantage before they access primary school; primary school must efficiently prepare kids for secondary school, which must be the phase during which they shall develop autonomy, strengthen technical and socio-emotional skills, and access professional practices directly linked to the world of work. If we want to seize the demographic bonus, we must be certain that this process functions with top level quality.
Pedagogic approaches, such as the spiral of creative thinking developed by Mitchel Resnick, where the dynamic includes: imagining, creating, playing, sharing, reflecting and imagining…, would ease the integrative process of continuous improvements.
These changes in pedagogic approaches may place school as the most important spot in the neighborhood, the meeting point, the space where people learn, experiment, practice sports, access to a world that generates positive emotions.
It is not about updating education, but of transforming it. The format of school has remained almost intact for years, it has not adapted to the knowledge society yet. Approaches and contents must articulate the educational system with the labor world, and secondary school to university. Within this interaction we must create opportunities for the development of skills based on the needs of the productive world and of modern society.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution includes threats and great opportunities. If we develop appropriate human capital, modernize our regulatory frameworks and make the most of the demographic bonus, we have a major chance of neutralizing threats and increasing opportunities.
Innovation in education and life-long learning of skills that fit the needs of society are the basic conditions for development.
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.
Follow Martín Padulla on Twitter: @MartinPadulla
mpadulla@staffingamericalatina.com
About staffingamericalatina
It is the unique independent digital media specialized in Latin American´s labour markets.
Produce and spread contents, researches and developments about issues such us Employability, Youth Employment, Training for Employment, Decent Work, Private Employment Agencies, Active policies for employment, Teleworking, Public and private actions for the creation of decent work, Green Jobs and Corporate Social Responsibility.
It is the meeting point for companies, providers, candidates, service´s companies, academics and independent professionals of Latin America.
Follow staffingamericalatina on Twitter: @staffingal
