I was reflecting on the future of education and I am coming to the conclusion that a lot of the big educational establishments will be in danger of being overtaken by those who are able to manage change efficiently and effectively. I believe technology is enabling a global change in education which is in someways analogous to the aeroplane's impact on global transport in the 20th century.
This thinking has led me to create some scenarios:
Bill Ashbee marvelled at how he has managed to get the degree he needed to take up a new role as head of engineering. It all changed when he had been looking at a job site on the web and found an advert for a national website that offered the tools to explore possible career paths from his current role and qualifications. Using an Accredited Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) tool on the site he had been able to have his decades of experience recognised and identified some key areas where he required some new skills. He studied some modules at the local college, enrolled on a couple of online courses and now he had the qualification that enabled him to take the next step in his career. Just 6 months before he wouldn’t have imagined it was possible, he knew that he couldn’t afford to take a long time out of work and wasn’t interested in what he considered “academic” study.
Malcolm Jacques is the CEO of an asset management firm and he had been unsure about how to develop the skills of his team to support their plan to sell their financial products internationally. A local learning broker had been able to impartially introduce him to some institutions. He identified the best institution to partner with after engaging with several online. Now he is in the process of designing some modular learning programmes that map with his business strategy moving forward.
Katie Willingham is unsure about what to do for her future she has done some study at a local college and arranges a meeting with her local Inforamation and Guidance (IAG) advisor who is able to identify several different potential careers based upon her interests, the qualifications she has gained, what she is studying and the competencies she has demonstrated. This advice session is immediately incorporated into her personal learning system online. She initially decides she wants to be an Analyst Programmer. Katie utilises tools online that describe people’s experiences and she realises that the bit that really interests her is interaction with people and so she chooses to look for a potential role that focuses on interacting with people rather than technical skills. Following the process of reflection online with input from friends, family and some further comments from IAG advisor over several months she decides she wants to become a Business Analyst. She wants to investigate further options online to see what potential courses are available to her locally and internationally to pursue her career.
Mike Chambers the institution’s principal was reflecting on the massive changes that he had implemented, over the last 20 years, to take advantage of e-systems and enable people like Malcolm Jacques. In essence the way people were learning was not that different, the educational system had been transformed to align better with the workplace.
Opportunities (and competition) were widespread and he knew that the availability of high quality online learning internationally meant that local institutions had lost their captive market, he knew because they had taken advantage of it fully.
He had recognised that they had to change to take advantage of their physical location and engage more with the community around them to develop a unique selling point locally and globally. The ways of recognising learning had exponentially grown and so had the different organisations supporting people. What Mike had done was to shift the organisational culture to meet these changes in educational provision and put their selves at the centre of what had become a much larger, connected educational marketplace.
Malcolm Jacques is the CEO of an asset management firm and he had been unsure about how to develop the skills of his team to support their plan to sell their financial products internationally. A local learning broker had been able to impartially introduce him to some institutions. He identified the best institution to partner with after engaging with several online. Now he is in the process of designing some modular learning programmes that map with his business strategy moving forward.
Katie Willingham is unsure about what to do for her future she has done some study at a local college and arranges a meeting with her local Inforamation and Guidance (IAG) advisor who is able to identify several different potential careers based upon her interests, the qualifications she has gained, what she is studying and the competencies she has demonstrated. This advice session is immediately incorporated into her personal learning system online. She initially decides she wants to be an Analyst Programmer. Katie utilises tools online that describe people’s experiences and she realises that the bit that really interests her is interaction with people and so she chooses to look for a potential role that focuses on interacting with people rather than technical skills. Following the process of reflection online with input from friends, family and some further comments from IAG advisor over several months she decides she wants to become a Business Analyst. She wants to investigate further options online to see what potential courses are available to her locally and internationally to pursue her career.
Mike Chambers the institution’s principal was reflecting on the massive changes that he had implemented, over the last 20 years, to take advantage of e-systems and enable people like Malcolm Jacques. In essence the way people were learning was not that different, the educational system had been transformed to align better with the workplace.
Opportunities (and competition) were widespread and he knew that the availability of high quality online learning internationally meant that local institutions had lost their captive market, he knew because they had taken advantage of it fully.
He had recognised that they had to change to take advantage of their physical location and engage more with the community around them to develop a unique selling point locally and globally. The ways of recognising learning had exponentially grown and so had the different organisations supporting people. What Mike had done was to shift the organisational culture to meet these changes in educational provision and put their selves at the centre of what had become a much larger, connected educational marketplace.
