Education has promising opportunities in emerging markets

Funzi, a mobile learning service, organized an online event on February 25th, 2021, that gathered together world-leading education experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities of education and learning in emerging economies. 

Learning and education are changing, and the traditional education structure does not serve current global needs. The formal education system, build by developed countries, is teaching inaccurate things in inefficient methods. Education structures must change globally to match the contemporary requirements of labor markets. “Emerging markets do not carry the dead weight of outdated education structures as developed countries,” points out Dr. Dirk Van Damme,  Senior Counsellor for Education and Skills at the OECD.

Automatization and the fourth industrial revolution will cause 85 million jobs to disappear, while 97 million new jobs will emerge. To perform future employment requires a whole new set of skills that traditional formal education fails to provide. Emerging markets have the opportunity to take a considerable leap forward while developed countries will struggle with bureaucracy and institutionalized education structures. Emerging markets can move from teaching knowledge to teaching skills that people need to complete their jobs and improve their livelihood.

In the future, education will be considered as a service 

Learning will become more personalized to match individual needs, and in the future, it will be considered as a service. Education content will change as well as the distribution methods. “New learning ecosystems will take place in the post-pandemic world, and EdTech will deliver meaningful content to people's devices," says Narriman Ajdiri-Beim, the former director at Pearson, the world-leading education content provider. EdTech will change the distribution, and the publishers will have to respond to the increasing demand for more flexible and personalized learning. Solutions already exist to make learning and skills development more individualized. 

While technology will change education structures, demand for content and the way people will learn in the future, the human element of learning and peer-to-peer support will remain. "Technology will change the distrubution of educational content, but technology will never — and should never — replace the interaction of a community of learners. Technology should just make access to learning easier for us humans", Aape Pohjavirta, the founder of Funzi, highlights. 

Skills gaps are holding back the global development

There is a significant mismatch between job descriptions and skills. Currently, 1,3 billion people do not have the skills they need to perform at their jobs. The number is estimated to grow to 1,4 billion by 2030. The most profound skills gaps are in emerging markets, which are the same markets that account for 90% of the global population aged under 30. This generation will experience a significant pivot during their work-life towards a more automated future. Fixing global mismatch could increase US$11.5 trillion to global GDP by 2028. 

“The skills we need in the future are cognitive skills, system skills, and complex problem-solving skills, including communication, teamwork, and creativity to find solutions,” says  Sandeep Aneja, the Founder and Managing Director of Kaizenvest, the world’s largest private education investor.

Local organizations play an essential role

"The most important work organizations must do right now for the learners is the advocacy to shift the cultures of learning, so that young people see the value of learning and being self-empowered learners," says Robyn Pretorius, a Learning Experience Designer and Project lead at Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator.

According to the experience of working with young adults in South Africa, Harambee Employability Designer Brent Davidoff finds that learners are highly motivated and adaptable to change. The youth will rise to the occasion when they are given a chance to self-actualize and pursue goals. The hope of young adults in emerging markets is the catalyst to ignite the spark for the change that will revolutionize the education structures. Scalable mobile learning services, such as Funzi, will provide learners a new window of opportunity. Mobile learning can instigate the rapid pivots that skills development and education globally need.

More information

More information about Funzi https://www.funzi.fi/

Wilma Wibom, [email protected], +358-40-557 7174

More information about the event: https://www.funzi.fi/events