New three-year initiative will seek to support and sustain education reform in 31 countries
We are living in a time of convergent crises: the global coronavirus pandemic, the climate crisis, the struggle for racial justice, the polarization of societies and a global learning crisis. Alongside these crises, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing the very nature of work and economies around the world. The workforce of tomorrow will require new skills and unprecedented nimbleness.
Taken together, these challenges place exceptional demands on educational policymakers across the world. Education reform at any point in time is challenging, complex, and requires sustained energy and political will. It is particularly challenging now because of the pandemic, however for all of the reasons above, education reform is absolutely essential, and policymakers should not delay it.
Enter Salzburg Global Seminar’s newest multi-year initiative: the Education Policymakers Network.
The Education Policymakers Network is a new three-year program designed to connect policymakers from 31 different countries to work, learn and innovate. Launching in the spring of 2021, the Network will help support and sustain education reform around the need to develop a breadth of skills – cognitive, creative, physical, social and emotional – in young and school-aged learners.
“Education reform that is focused on developing a breadth of skills within education systems is a necessary and legitimate means to tackle the interlinking crises facing the world today,” explains Salzburg Global Program Director Dominic Regester.
“Such education reform is a response to the learning and well-being needs during and beyond the pandemic; it is a forward-thinking and proactive approach for developing behaviors that can help us address the climate crisis and structural racial inequality; and ultimately, it is a component of fairer, more compassionate societies in the future.”
The Education Policymakers Network will comprise 31 policymakers working in the education sector at national and regional levels in 31 countries. The policymakers will start the three-year initiative with a series of online workshops and virtual network meetings before meeting in person at Schloss Leopoldskron, home of Salzburg Global Seminar, in 2022 for the first of three week-long programs. Network members will be encouraged to launch new collaborative projects, supported by study visit bursaries. There will also be public online conferences and a series of insight reports and an e-book of essays to further share the learnings and innovations of the Network.
The Education Policymakers Network is generously supported by a consortium of partners: the LEGO Foundation, Diplomatic Courier, ETS, Microsoft and Qatar Foundation International. The new initiative builds on Salzburg Global’s long track record in this area, most recently the series on Education for Tomorrow’s World and Education Disrupted, Education Reimagined.
To find out more about the Network and to apply to join, please click here: www.salzburgglobal.org/multi-year-series/edupolicy