JOINING EDUCATION to INDUSTRY - 21st CENTURY DEMANDS

The OECD say once prominent countries now find themselves strategically adrift in the knowledge creation era, struggling in the wake of emerging economies. The OECD and Global Innovation Index point to widening chasms between the architecture of the nation’s education-industry system, their 21st Century global or strategic innovation “needs”, as distinct to the quality of the underlying education environment. Transforming the industrial-education system is a wicked problem that is no less surmountable when knowing today’s marketplace is charecterised by rapid and multidimensional change.

New Zealand's annual education investment, of an average $ 8,000 per student (relative to GDP per capita - OECD) across 3500 schools returns just of 1% to 2% "growth". In highlighting this as an investment risk rather than a “rock star” economy triumph, New Zealand’s growth is made up of a dominant dairy export proposition and income generated as a tourist destination. This risk profile is such that this investment yields a flattening 0.19% portion of an increasing global GDP. Furthermore, New Zealand's tertiary education sector falters amongst the world University quality and achievement rankings. The effect links to New Zealand sliding from 13th to 18th out of 142 countries, on the World Intellectual Property-Global Innovation Index, over the recent 3 year period; with low scores in the human capital categories.

Innovation data evinces that the espoused transformational benefits of educational policy changes, made from early to mid 2000’s, where an 8 year lag exists between the socio-educational reforms and serious issues of today, were esoteric. These education policies have resulted in entrenching the prevailling industrial revolution education system. As a matter of fact, the Tertiary and industry claim an ever diminishing supply of inadequately skilled secondary school students is entering each system, as New Zealand’s only innovation supply line. Compounding matters, education officials promote the quality of New Zealand’s education system performance in terms of “batch processing” students towards the NCEA qualifications. NCEA qualifies by the achievement “credits” for low end thinking or comprehension based participation; driving this, instructional teacher-centred paradigms dominate educational practice, as a result. This drives dis-engagement rather than being a bedrock of future talent-generation, digital transformation and or knowledge creation.

Regurgitating the same tired policies serves only to develop a view that entrusting upon the illusion of success, through governments injecting risk capital alone, to be risky business. As governments are not good at transformation, faced with the risks of replicating the status quo, this creates significant strategic risks for New Zealand’s innovation argument on the global stage, in a knowledge creation, digital.

What role should front line educators and industry play if they can no longer singularly rely upon governments, or institutional education strategy, as a proviso for 21st Century education? And how should educators go about promoting complex change?

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