In partnership with the World Innovation Summit for Education we have written ‘Learning a Living,’ a new book that focuses on radical innovation at the education/work interface. In anticipation of its release in mid-November, we are launching a month-long campaign to celebrate and bring attention to some of the most powerful thinking on, and examples of, initiatives which hold out the hope of radically new approaches better fitted to the conditions of the 21st century. Read more about the book here.
This week: some of the most innovative educational initiatives that (just barely) did not make it into 'Learning a Living,' divided into regions.
Asia-Pacific
BBC Janala, Bangladesh
BBC Janala uses mobile, web, television and print media to enable millions of people in Bangladesh to learn English in a simple and affordable way. It is the largest, multi-platform innovation to improve English language skills anywhere in the developing world.
The Academy (National Bank of Australia), Australia
The National Bank of Australia has created an in-house Academy that uses a mix of online learning sites, and virtual learning and collaboration technologies to further develop its employees’ skills and leadership abilities. It has integrated a range of learning programs, courses, tools and technologies so staff can better learn, share knowledge and network.
NIIT Yuva Star Career Development Centres, India
The NIIT Yuva Star project is designed to empower and mainstream India’s marginalised youth through communication and employability skills training. The programme has expanded to 24 centres and over 75% of eligible students have been placed in jobs.
Scientifically Tailored Employability Programme, India
STEP is an end-to-end “livelihood through skills” training program that helps underprivileged young people. Working with both government and private providers, it offers a training program designed to comprehensively enhance students’ communication and soft skills, computer skills and trade-specific domain skills.
Worldwide
Mozilla’s Open Badges Project, Worldwide
This project works to recognise the skills and achievements that people gain outside of formal academic contexts, by developing technology that enables any organisation to issue, earn and display badges across the web. Learners and users can collect badges from different sources and display them through a variety of mediums, thereby leading to jobs, community recognition and new learning opportunities.
School for Social Entrepreneurs, UK, Canada, Australia
The School for Social Entrepreneurs supports social entrepreneurs from all backgrounds to transform their talent into real social outcomes, in the form of sustainable solutions to poverty and disadvantage in communities. It does this through the use of action-learning based programmes of personal and organisational development, as well as peer-to-peer coaching.
SIFE, Worldwide
SIFE is a non-profit organization that works with business and higher education to mobilise university students to make a difference in their communities while developing the skills to become socially responsible business leaders. Participating students form teams on their university campuses and apply business concepts to develop outreach projects that improve the quality of life and standard of living for people in need.
The book was released at the WISE annual event on the 13-15 of November. You can read the first chapter here. Click here to order a copy.
Reproduced/adapted from Living A Learning: Radical Innovation in Education for Work, published by WISE Qatar and Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing 2013.
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