PANEL 14 David Davies (USA)
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PANEL 14 David Davies (USA)
- 1. Effective Education for Employment Dr David Davies 2009
- 2. “ Every country that sustained high growth for long periods put substantial effort into schooling its citizens and deepening its human capital .” Commission on Growth & Development
- 3. Unprecedented pace of change, complexity and competition Technology Global economy Knowledge economies Ageing Population growth / depopulation Immigration / migration Urbanisation Unemployment Poverty / social mobility Rising expectations Socio-economic context
- 4. Education is key Unprecedented pace of change, complexity and competition Education is key Education is failing to keep pace
- 5. Objectives Curricula development Set up Delivery Assessment Progression Maximising Impact Teachers not trained Programmes disconnected Methods not relevant One size fits all QA and benchmarking standards missing Learning not assessed Certification lacking Recruitment disconnected From education Succession not linked to learning Low status of ‘ vocational’ Best practice Not shared Learning Objectives not relevant Gov/employers/ Educators not connected Student access issues Key findings
- 6. Optimise student access Relevant methods Learner-centred Relevant assessments Certificated Academic Employment Measure ROI Share best practice Relevant Learning Outcomes Frameworks of programmes Technology Connect policy objectives Content Quality Assurance Process Teacher training Objectives Curricula development Set up Delivery Assessment Progression Maximising Impact Complete solution
- 7. Transferable Qualities “ Any company that aspires to succeed in the tougher business environment of today must first resolve a basic dilemma: success in the marketplace increasingly depends on learning, yet most people don’t know how to learn” Chris Argyris Harvard Business Review Team working Communication Creativity/ innovation Positive thinking Accepting responsibility Cultural sensitivity Languages Problem solving Leadership & management Empathy Learning Initiative Professional manner Trust Sustainability Multi-tasking
- 9. “ Every country that sustained high growth for long periods put substantial effort into schooling its citizens and deepening its human capital .” Commission on Growth & Development
- 14. BTEC short courses Our International Qualifications NQF Level Framework for Higher Education Qualifications (FHEQ) Edexcel Qualifications Academic Vocational (BTEC) Level 7 M (masters) Masters degrees, postgraduate certificates and diplomas Level 7 Diploma in Management Studies Level 6 H (honours) Bachelor degrees, graduate certificates and diplomas Level 6 Certificate in Management Studies Level 5 I (intermediate) Diplomas of higher education and further education, foundation degrees and higher national diplomas Level 5 BTEC Higher National Certificate or Diploma Level 4 C (certificate) Certificates of higher education Level 4 Professional Certificate Level 3 GCE (A) Levels Level 3 National Award, Certificate or Diploma Level 2 GCSE (A-C) Level 2 Diploma Level 1 GCSE (D-G) Level 1 Certificate Entry Level Basic skills Entry Level Certificate
Editor's Notes
- Good morning and thank you all for coming today. I know that many of you have made a significant effort to get here today and you have all given a lot of time. I very much appreciate that and hope that you find today interesting and useful. I intend to give you a fairly quick overview of what Edexcel believes is a unique and significant piece of research entitled ‘Effective Education for Employment’. This took us to twenty five countries where we interviewed around 2000 people - government officials, employers, employees, students and educators. I will give you an international perspective on education and employment. We at Edexcel are interested in real world problems and pragmatic, effective solutions – communicated in ways that everyone can understand and remember. In the words of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, ‘What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.’ That is what we have tried to do in our research and what I’ll try to do today, but if anything is not clear do please ask questions.
- What stimulated Edexcel to commission this research was the troubling doubt that education is perhaps not effectively meeting the needs of individuals and employers at the micro level… or of economies at the macro level. This report by the Commission on Growth and Development in 2008 found conclusively that effective economic development is founded on intelligent investment in education. But it seemed to us that even relatively successful economies are not getting their educational activity quite right. So the theme of our questions in this research – which covered developed and developing countries was – ‘Is education meeting the needs of employers and economies?’ Before asking these questions we thought it would be useful to capture the big trends that define the social and economic context in which we do education – in other words, the environment that affects and is affected by and individuals’ educational experience and practice. There are some very strong trends that collectively mean that we are living in times of unprecedented change, complexity and competition. This is true in the US, where college graduates earn at least 50% more than high school graduates. It is true in China, where one of the quickest ways to double your salary is to become fluent in English. It is true across Africa, where every extra year of schooling a teenage girl receives, leads to a ten per cent increase in her living standard in adult life. And it is true in the UK where, within 15 years, there are likely to be five million fewer “unskilled” jobs and as many more “highly skilled” roles. We know that quantity of education is an important contributor to both economic development and quality of life. This includes social benefits such as lower birth rates, better health outcomes, lower crime statistics, social mobility and social equality. There is a direct correlation between social inequality and inequality in education. The report goes on to stress how vital it is to measure the outputs of increased investment in education – quality. For many years, significant research has shown that the quantity of education (access and duration) positively affects economic growth. Investment in education leads to increased productivity and growth. Research is now beginning to show that the contribution of education quality to individual income, income distribution, and economic growth is a better indicator of productivity and economic growth than years of schooling. In other words, it is not just about more education but about better, more effective education There is, and needs to be, a shift from measuring progress in education by inputs – such as education spending as a percentage of GDP, pupil-teacher ratios, enrolment rates, technology infrastructure etc to measuring outputs – are literacy and numeracy rates improving? Is the level of “employability” of graduates and school leavers increasing? ROI H C - Return on investment in human capital – is paramount. And everybody in the education system needs to accept their share of responsibility.
- Technology is the obvious place to start. The Internet radically changed way we communicate – as the printing press had done in earlier centuries – increasing reach, immediacy and complexity. Every day, 10 million new web pages are added to the Internet.55 billion emails are sent. There are now 6 billion web sites open. This complexity is exacerbated by increasing sophistication of how we use the internet. User-generated content – Wikipedia. Richness of information – videos on YouTube. The gaming industry is now worth $22bn annually, bigger than the film industry. Virtual worlds have 70 million people registered worldwide. Social networking - 275 million registered users on Facebook alone and another 1 million being added every day It is not just the internet… Every second, 3 babies are born . And 38 mobile phones purchased. Every month there are 12 million new mobile subscribers - in India alone There are over 4 billion mobile phone users around the world. And the complexity of devices grows – there are now 35,000 applications for use on the iPhone and 250 are added every day Last year 15% of mobile sales were smartphones and we now have eReaders, PDAs, MP3s, ultra-portables and flashdrives. So technology makes us ever more connected and mobile, while breaking down geographic boundaries and making our lives increasingly international, changing and complex . As technologies melt international borders so too the idea of purely domestic business flows away iPods are sold everywhere and made in 6 countries Governments break down the legacy of trade barriers The number of international trade agreements has multiplied by five times in the past twenty years . In 1989 there were 80 international trade agreements; today, governments around the world are involved in nearly 425 trade agreements. The f low of goods across borders has become a necessary fact for both emerging and developed economies. The United Kingdom exported US $440 billion of products and services during that period and the United States traded formally with 231 different countries. And as this happens, economies become increasingly based on knowledge. Will Hutton has pointed out that research, design, development, creativity, education, science, brand equity are central to sustained economic growth and competitiveness. The most dynamic economic sectors are knowledge-intensive industries This internationalisation of economies means we are faced with increasing competition . In fact, we are effectively engaged in a global skills race which means if you don’t have access to international standards of education to feed a workforce of international standards, then you simply can’t compete. Dan Ariely has pointed out the falsity of standard economic theory – “that human beings are capable of always making rational decisions and that markets and institutions, in the aggregate, are healthily self-regulating”. (Dan Ariely, The End of Rational Economics, Harvard Business Review 2009) “ Today’s mix of urgency, high stakes, and uncertainty will continue as the norm even after the recession ends.” (Heifetz, Garshow, Linsky, Leadership in a Permanent Crisis, Harvard Business Review 2009) “ Economies cannot erect a firewall against intensifying global competition, energy constraints, climate change, and political instability. The immediate crisis… sets the stage for a sustained or even permanent crisis of serious and unfamiliar challenges” (Heifetz, Garshow, Linsky, Leadership in a Permanent Crisis, Harvard Business Review 2009) These technological and economic trends are consistent across develop and developing countries. However, demographic trends are often quite different. Ageing, for example is different… In developed countries families are becoming smaller and populations are aging – the USA the only developed country not to face depopulation in coming years. This will have significant implications on the economics of a nation. As populations age, more money must be allocated for pensions, health care etc while the number of individuals supplying the funding for these programs declines. GDP feels tremendous pressure under the stress of a reduced workforce and abated productivity. In the USA, in forty years from now, more than half of the population will be over 50. And the fiscal impact is significant. Twenty years from now, the U.S.’s social security plan will cost taxpayers 50% more than it does today While the costs of looking after older people escalate, the burden of labour falls to fewer, younger people. Today, 3.3 workers sustain every retiree in the US – in 20 years this number will fall to just two. To offset this tilting scale, many developed countries rely increasingly on immigration more than ever. In a recent UN survey, fewer countries than ever favoured a reduction in immigration and less than one-fifth of respondents reacted negatively towards immigration. With 38 million migrants in 2005, the US leads the world as a host country. Europe’s migrant population of over 64 million in Europe is even larger than the North American continent’s . Immigrants in Australia and Canada comprise nearly 20 percent of their total populations. Of course immigration for some means migration for others. India , for example, is planning on training and exporting around 50million workers in the next 20 years - While this trend can generate significant offshore revenues for emerging economies it can also put a strain on the domestic workforce in host countries, particularly increasing competition in some sectors And of course it can lead to skills shortages and brain drains in providing, developing nations. In developing nations we see exploding populations within emerging nations send approximately 700 million young people into the workforce each year. With fewer jobs to go around and more labourers, the competition for work is more intense than ever. A recent UN report explained that global unemployment was over 210 million people at the end of 2008, a jump of 40 million in one year. The irony in South Africa is that there is high unemployment despite the need for skilled people. And that a further 200 million people could be classed as “working poor ”, these are people who earn less than two dollars per day. Around twenty five percent of the world’s 1.4 billion people who live in extreme poverty, earning less than $1.25 a day, live in developing nations. Nearly three quarters of Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia live under the $2 mark. And 80% of the world’s population live on less than $10 a day. Further, more than eighty per cent of the world’s population live in nations where the income gap is widening. Data taken from The World Bank suggests that income disparities between nations are actually widening at a quicker pace than ever before. In 1970, the income ratio between the richest and poorest countries was about 44 to 1. Twenty five years later it had climbed to 74 to 1. The financial wealth of the top 1% of American households exceeds the combined wealth of the bottom 95% of households. This puts increasing pressure on us to educate and give opportunity to those on the wrong side of the gap - but that in turn of course increases competition. The poorest forty percent of the world’s population accounts for only five per cent of global income; whereas the richest twenty per cent account for around seventy five per cent of world income. It is also worth noting that the collective GDP of the 41 most heavily indebted countries - in which more than 500 million people live - is less than the combined wealth of the world’s seven richest people. Usually, opportunities to escape poverty are severely limited because people in these conditions rarely have access to high quality education. While globalisation means countries rely on one another for goods and services, it also ultimately entails dependence on the exchange of, and exchanges between, human capital. Without international standards of education, developing nations are disadvantaged in these international economic exchanges. Another challenge facing many countries is the migration of people from rural to urban areas. In emerging economies like China and India , there are huge numbers of people moving from agricultural work to the hope of work in urban areas, work that often requires vastly different skills and behaviours. And with good re-training programmes often lacking, this can cause a significant strain on unemployment figures and on competition for work. It can also put a real strain on the quality of education provision in rural areas where , in India for example, it is common for trained teachers to move to urban areas to receive better pay, leaving only untrained teachers behind. It is not only domestic competition that is changing. In an attempt to find a comfortable place in the new, global economy, many countries have now essentially entered a skills race, an essentially economic competition based on the effectiveness of a country’s workforce. In 2006, fifty two countries analysed by the World Economic Forum scored more than 4.0 on a 6-point scale that analyzes the pillars of competitiveness, including technological readiness, financial market sophistication, and macroeconomic stability. Two years later, the number of countries scoring over a 4.0 increased by 25 to a total of 77, with a greater presence from Africa and South America. Set against this complex backdrop is the observation that came up time and again – that despite increasingly difficult times, young people have increasing expectations of what they should earn, own, do and not do… And what about role of family? The dynamics of family life are changing significantly – ageing parents, cohabitation v marriage, divorce, work v motherhood, geographical spread, more time with grandparents, Learning outcomes are worse for single parent children. Financial hardship is more common. There is an increased occurrence of poor communication, low levels of affection and more erratic discipline. In summary, the macro context is that we live in a world that is increasingly global. Where change, complexity and competitiveness are increasing.
- We are living in a world in which education is key to an individual’s and an economy's wellbeing. But where education has failed and is failing to keep pace – it is not fit for purpose. It is not preparing young people well enough, systematically enough, or widely enough to find work, to enter the workplace effectively or to contribute to the economic welfare of countries. It is common to find 50% or more of young people failing to achieve the government’s baseline qualifications standard. In 2007 just 44% of young people [in the UK] achieved what the government considers to be the baseline: 5 GCSE passes including English and Maths (Claxton). In the UK, the CBI’s Director claims that one in three businesses are being forced to send staff (many of them graduates) for remedial lessons in basic literacy and numeracy. In India, 95% of bachelors degree graduates and 75% of MBAs are unfit for work. In 2006, Infosys received 1.3m applications, but considered only 2% to be employable - India And all this despite increased inputs such as: increased spending on education increased access longer schooling.
- What are the causes? They are complex. Our curricula are strikingly similar to those you see in the industrial revolution. Our methods are the same as those used in the industrial revolution - and even further back to the very first university in Bologna. And many of our fundamental beliefs about to education go back to Plato – who said abstract thought was the highest form of thinking. Employers, educators and governments not well connected Occupational standards (Employment Profiles) are well understood and could be a very effective way of connecting employers and educators but they are often not used at all or where they are used they are usually developed by and for large employers – not SMEs. They are rarely developed in partnership between employers and educators or even shared with educators should be developed in partnership between employers and educators. Occupational standards should form the basis of employment processes and the basis of learning programmes. This means that the relevance of even ‘vocational’ programmes is often poor – programmes are sometimes developed by educators without much insight into the needs of employers. Let alone the relevance of academic programmes! In fact, curricula present a real problem in the premium that is placed on academic learning: This emphasis was developed during the nineteenth century when mass education was born to meet the needs of the industrial revolution, because knowledge is easier to measure than skills or behaviours and so its pre-eminence was perhaps a pragmatic stance to take. But it is clearly flawed – not only does it largely fail employers but it also fails students in quite profound ways. A common message is that success at school means getting enough points to go on to university, but in most countries that means that 3 out of 4 young people are effectively branded failures (Claxton). Claxton’s research also shows that students’ perceptions of their own effectiveness and confidence of learners drops significantly from key stage 2 to 3. Thirteen year olds see themselves as less resilient, less resourceful, less curious and less good at team work than do 9 year olds”. So there may even be a negative effect of schooling! Programmes are disconnected. There is no progression from one programme to another. Even primary and secondary schools and universities are disconnected, let alone adult learning. Transferable qualities are almost always lacking. There is a focus on behaviours versus knowledge and skills. We should teach school to work / employability at an earlier stage and develop and assess them explicitly. Learning to learn is the key.
- This is our model of effective Education for Employment. By focusing on quality assuring the education process, the outcome- the quality of the learner- is the focus. The quality of teaching is a key issue . There is a problem with content but what about delivery? Too much teaching is by rote . “One study found that in the space of a lesson students volunteered just two questions to the teacher’s eighty four. Over a school year young people asked an average of just one question a month” – Dillon ‘The Practice of Questioning’ 1999. Teachers are not taught to teach experientially - sometimes they’re not trained at all. Teachers don’t understand the world of work beyond their own profession (Keevy, 2009). Only 23% enforce comprehensive professional requirements of teachers, only 17% of commonwealth countries offer formal CPD to teachers. Access to training is affected by issues connected to affordability, physical access, the opportunity to work in one’s own time and at one’s own pace. Forty per cent of young South Africans (21-25) are neither in work nor school. Assessment is problematic. Learning is often not assessed at all – especially in-work learning – assessments raise learning outcomes and should always be present! Assessment may not be relevant. What kind of assessment is best? This depends on a number of factors and it is difficult to be prescriptive except to say that the assessment needs to be designed as an integral part of the programme and needs to take into account firstly what is being assessed, why, for whom…and then how, when and where! What is apparent is that there is a very strong dependence on summative written examinations , which are very good for assessing an learner’s knowledge at a specific point in time, but are likely to be less relevant for assessing skills or behaviours, or even a learner’s potential, which is recognised as being more effectively predicted over time, i.e. continuous assessments are in most cases thought to be more effective for all stakeholders. Added to which, summative exams-based assessments can put too much pressure on a certain kind of academic teaching and learning, leading to teaching to pass the test. Five criteria need to be met: validity, reliability, objectivity, feasibility and usability. Seven key approaches can be used: standardised testing, common assessment tasks, teacher-generated tasks (including performance assessment), judgement by teacher groups, embedded development and assessment, portfolio construction and self assessment. Certification is often lacking. Research suggests that certification raises learning outcomes and learner satisfaction again – e.g. 10m swimming certificates. Certification is often proof of attendance, not of ability or performance. It is also key for employers that need to compare staff competence, and for mobile workers to prove their abilities. ‘Only one in five UK managers has any qualification relevant to their role’ - CMI Employers are often not involved in education delivery. “Schools should not teach people to work” – “Employers should not be involved in education”. All managers are educators, so should be educated as such. Programmes are often not benchmarked and this is key to address the mobility issue. International benchmarking is the key for international mobility. It is also key for employers that need to compare staff competence and of course for mobile workers to prove their abilities. We need to allow academic progression: life-long learning leads to sustainable human capital investment. As well as employment progression, including connecting learning to succession planning and other HR processes, we need to maximise impact by measuring ROI and celebrating success. Edexcel can offer quality assured qualifications for reliability, for comparability between students, centres, industries, nationally and internationally, and to ensure you are making a sustainable investment. Edexcel has the international stamp of quality ISO 9001 2000 Standard (Certificate 3313) and ISO 27001 2005 Standard (Certificate 002) We can implement this process for any existing programme by means of our Accreditation Service. Or, more frequently, people want to adopt our own programmes – BTECs… One example of Edexcel certification in this area is the BTEC Awards and Certificates in Work skills Plus at Level 3 which provide an opportunity for learners to achieve a qualification that enables them to enter and progress in employment by providing them with the knowledge, understanding and skills to progress in employment and to develop a range of skills and techniques, personal qualities and attributes that are essential for performance in working life. Units available in the qualification include: Career Development, Preparing for Work Placement, Personal Skills for Leadership and Presentations for Work I believe that the understanding of vocational education that we have gained as a result of our research puts us in a good position to assist Colombia in the key sectors of health, agriculture, business administration, finance and banking and the creative industries. We are willing to register with the relevant authorities, map our BTEC qualifications to CNO specific sectors and relevant ‘competencies laborales’ and to the Colombian academic credit system as part of this process. We are also keen to work with both the public and private sectors in Colombia in order to develop this work.
- We need to use new recruitment techniques, particularly ones that evaluate attitudes and transferable qualities like team work etc…Learning is not linked to in-work progression / succession. Employees do not know what they need to do to progress, to be mobile. We need to link education directly with succession. Learners are often mis-informed about the value of programmes. They are told that programmes will lead to work and they do not. We need to gain better guidance from learners as to the real value of their learning, both in work and pre-work situations. Learning is needed because of continuing change and uncertainty. Organisations and individuals need to be able to adapt, and that means learn. The ideal employee is a learning employee. There is a key problem of the low status accorded to vocational qualifications. We need governments, industry and the media to work together to jointly raise the status of ‘vocational’ education, to promote good attitudes to work and to celebrate success. There are many highly successful programmes we came across which can form the basis of bringing all the key stakeholders together. Economic policy and ministries of education in individual countries are often not connected sufficiently closely. Ministries of Education must play a key role in linking all the stakeholders together.
- Feedback from interviews in more than 25 countries has persistently drawn our attention to one key point- that there is a significant disconnection between education systems and the needs of 21st century employers, both public and private. The match between what employers, individuals and governments seek and what respective education and training systems provide appears ill-fitting in many countries. Effective education for employment is now a core driver of economic globalisation. While the findings suggest some country-specific skills demands, the requirements are consistent across the world. Businesses and organisations in different countries are looking for individuals with a similar set of behaviours, skills and knowledge that can be adapted to specific work conditions. The global skills race is real and is intensifying. Levels of skills and education are vital components in the skills race and will increasingly determine the economic fortunes of many countries. Many education challenges are now related to behaviours. It is becoming increasingly important for workers to have the right attitude, a willingness to learn and an understanding of how to conduct themselves in the workplace. These are the transferable qualities that many employers are seeking. In order to deliver effective education for employment, we face the following key challenges: Developing shared employment profiles that connect employers to educators Incorporating knowledge, skills and behaviours into education and training programmes Building programmes that effectively stretch and develop these qualities for use in the real world Developing transferable qualities explicitly to connect academic with professional learning, progressively through the stages of learning Building comprehensive, progressive learning frameworks Developing and extending the quality of teaching Assessing and certifying learners appropriately Sharing and promoting best practice By focusing on quality assuring the education process, the outcome, the overall quality of the learner, is the focus. It is only by investing intelligently in effective education for employment that we can have stronger economies, more competitive business and more opportunity for individuals to survive and thrive in these challenging times. I believe we all have a responsibility to help address these issues. I would love to find ways in which we at Pearson could do more to help here in Colombia. Thank you.
- Invest intelligently in effective education for employment so that we have more adaptable workforces, stronger economies, and more opportunity for business and for individuals…