Go to school, get your degree, get a job. Does this traditional path from education to employment make sense today for the hundreds of millions of learners around the world? Let's find out using the design thinking process.

3. University Teacher for over a decade, the
person interviewed has experienced different
roles on the learning process: as student,
professional, employer and teacher.
During this interview he has focused on the
teacher's point of view. However, the point of
view from the job market as employer may
also be present during some of his
statements.

15. THINK # 1
From the “say” section it is possible to make the
following inferences about the stakeholder’s
thoughts:
- He cannot bring many changes to his class, for
it is not ready for it.
- The official requests regarding content and
evaluation are not in accordance to the
challenges his students will face in the future.
- The students don’t want to read or do any
extra class work. They go for the certificate.
- University should balance theory and practical
approach in order to cut distances between
studies and work environment
- Innovation in methods can only be brought if it
doesn’t delays the content’s program.
- Students also feel this distance between
University and work, therefore they are not
committed to the studies.

16. THINK # 2
- The content thought at the University today is
static and will soon be outdated. They should
be giving students the tools to build future
knowledge instead.
- The academic environment doesn’t seem to be
worried about the situation, the major concern
is to get a good review at the government’s
evaluation system.
- The path for those who want to build new
knowledge goes through extra courses that
bring more practical activities such as labs,
case studies and group discussions.
- Only extra private courses can bring the kind
of learning experience that can make a
difference for the students.

20. University
Teacher *
Make his classes
more interesting
and effective
University must prepare
students to build new
knowledge and future.

21. Interviewer’s insights and initial hypothesis:
- The current education system in Brazil does not motivate students or teachers
towards the learning experience
- There must be alternative ways to introduce innovation to this field
- Some possible alternatives include:
- One of the most important client segments of the Universities are the
employers. There must be a closer and more effective dialog between these
stakeholders in order to achieve a balance between the theory that enables
to question current practices and the teaching of best practices, between
classes and hands-on activities. This would include a stronger partnership
among academic environment and enterprises, allowing more visits
from students to the companies, and study of local cases (sometimes the
cases content shown in class are so far from the student’s reality that they
can barely relate to it).
- There should be some more autonomy to the teachers, even at public
universities, or an experimental path through extra courses (maybe
summer/winter courses using new approaches to the learning
experience)…
- The discussion groups that should be formed to introduce the needed
changes should include all kinds of stakeholders, in order to take into
account all the needs at stake.
This will probably be the hypothesis chosen for the current work,
since it allows more independent action towards the formulation of
an alternative approach...