Educational System Services

Educational institutions are facing tremendous changes in the 21st century - in particular the integration of technology has enriched the way of learning and teaching.

But also the growing importance of networking and collaborative benchlearning is playing a major role for educational organisations.

The listed services are covering the following classical educational fields (currently in preparation, to be finished by the end of October 2011):

1. Primary & Secondary Education

2. Higher Education

3. Vocational Education & Training

4. Adult Education

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• Primary & Secondary Education ( 0 Articles )
  

  Schools are facing increasing demands to put more efforts in reaching societal goals. Among these goals are maximizing human potential of more and more diverse pupils by teaching them the skills, capabilities and attitudes which will enable them to participate in societal life taking into account the contemporary economic environment. Our societies evolve towards participative democracies which require an informed electorate.
  
  Schools are struggling with these new demands put upon them. Many schools are not fully prepared to help pupils reach these goals. Can they be expected to carry pupils to these societal goals? Is it funding that causes problems? Is there not enough technology in the class room? Are the pupils and their parents to blame because they are not interested, lost in the demands of our current hectic society?
  
  Could it be that our teaching model is to blame? In our traditional teaching model the teacher teaches and the student memorizes. Some schools, however, have adopted more varied teaching methods with more active participation. Are teachers, backed by there unions, not willing to change and tired of all the demands put on them? In many countries there seems to be a lack of teachers who have been properly educated to work with pupils in order to motivate them for the broader societal goals. Some people are convinced that teachers should only teach subjects.
  
  Many nations in the world struggle with these issues. Despites these problems performance appraisal in countries differ as some international organizations (e.g. PISA studies) have indicated. Extrinsic (coming from outside the task) and intrinsic motivation (coming from the task itself) play a role. In many countries (e.g. some Asian countries) extrinsic motivation encouraged students to study subjects such as science, mathematics and engineering.
  
  When the economy in those countries started growing the extrinsic motivation became smaller. Families became more prosperous and there was little intrinsic motivation because the way these subjects where taught. Besides prosperity, other factors such as cultural and familial influences also play a role.
  
  Our services would consist of finding out together with you, why and how schools could become again an intrinsically motivating experience. We want to have an innovative look at these issues and show you the way to a more student-centered approach by integrating technology in the teaching and learning strategy and adapting the organizational model to this end. We want to go beyond statistically based research and explore the complex context in which many schools operate.
  
  For the previous paragraphs we have been inspired by the scholars C.M. Christensen, M.B. Horn and C.W. Johnson (2008), Disrupting class. How disruptive innovation will change the way the world learns. McGraw-Hill, New York.

• Higher Education ( 1 Article )
  

  In recent decades, many changes have taken place which impacted on universities. Universities have to redefine themselves if they want to stay a key player in the knowledge society. New organisational models are necessary. There is a need for new organisational models despite the fact that higher education is increasingly in demand and that traditional universities have survived for centuries. Some authors have hinted that traditional universities can be compared to mature industries (Levine, 1997). Upon a closer look, however, the situation may be somewhat more complex¹. Mature industries typically are confronted with slow growth and stagnant markets. The higher education sector, however, is growing because of the need for education. At the very least, there seems to be a paradox.
  
  It seems, indeed, that in the higher education sector many traditional universities are confronted with characteristics of mature industries. While, in practice, there are wide variations between universities , traditional universities² typically encounter obstacles such as the constraints from their relationship with the government, an unclear concept of their customers (does a traditional university even have customers?), an often outdated and inadequate operational and organisational model, and a lack of clarity about the stakeholders and the governance model.
  
  Clear strategic choices are often not made and are even less successfully implemented. Differentiation in organisational forms and strategies is still a problem among universities. Homogenizing forces (eg the state and the profession) have a tendency to make institutions more alike (DiMaggio , Powell, 1983; Huisman, 1995; Stensaker, Dahl Norgard, 2001).
  
  Often only incremental changes take place, only those that cannot be avoided or those that are forced onto them from the outside by changes in regulation or market forces, but very seldom inspired from within or based on a clear strategic vision. Even if the vision and the strategy are clear, change remains difficult. Slow academic decision making and rigid academic structures make it difficult to take decisions in a turbulent environment. The knowing-doing gap is rather wide in some of the universities living in an environment where organisations are trying to manage their explicit and implicit knowledge.
  
  It has now become clear that a mere multiplication or expansion of the existing model and infrastructure will not be sufficient, as new needs, demands and groups of potential ‘customers’ have to be addressed, including older students, working students, lifelong learning students and demands from companies. As a result, the growth of knowledge and the educational needs of society are beyond the control of the traditional universities. In the knowledge society, many other providers are creating, maintaining and distributing knowledge.
  
  An entire industry for providing educational services to society is now competing in a market place for students, faculty, and public and private funding. Market forces and societal demands are reshaping the industry. The bargaining power of “customers” (students are learners with individual educational needs) and “suppliers” (other knowledge-based firms) has increased. Threats of new organisational entrants and substitute services exist. Innovation in the core technology is taking place. The intensity of the competition in the knowledge industry from telecommunications and corporate education gives way to rapid changes (Porter, 1980, Peterson, Dill, 1997, pp 7- 8 and pp 13-15). The result of the current financial and economical crisis may be that the restructuring will take place faster (Sapir, 2009).
  
  At the same time, most universities can no longer count on increasing government support - quite the contrary - as they need to pay more attention to the varying demands and interests of their different stakeholders.
  
  In most cases, governments (in some places more than in others) are continuing their support of universities and, in return, are asking for more accountability. Higher education institutions are being asked to reflect more on cost, efficiency, productivity and effectiveness.
  
  Our services would consist of putting those reflections within a strategic framework for your institution.
  
  ¹ In his book “A University for the 21st century”, James J. Duderstadt (2000) mentions Arthur Levine’s article about “Higher Education’s new status as a mature industry” (1997) and suggests that the higher purposes of education (democratic, cultural heritage, responsible critics of society) cannot be put into an industrial model. Excesses in other public industries, or recently privatised industries, like health care, public transportation, the media (TV) or banking (since 2008) may provide ammunition for such statements. In our view, such positions may just be a sign of resistance to change. More importantly, we believe that even when taking such a position, this does not imply that we could not learn and draw useful insights from comparing universities with mature industries.
  
  ² Huisman et al. (2002) studied examples of ‘alternative’ universities set up in various European countries which were expected to develop a profile which would differ from established institutions of higher education.
  
  

• VET / Training Organisation ( 0 Articles )
  

  Employers, governments and students often give different meanings to employability skills than academics (Hillage, Pollard, 1998, Harvey, 1999a, Conference Board Canada, 2000).
  
  Kwok (2004) points out that employers often complain about the skills of their employees. He used the data from a Canadian survey (Angus Reid Group, 1999) among graduates who had graduated for less than 2 years. He found out that these graduates are convinced they developed and obtained employability skills which they used in their work environment. Based on the survey results, Kwok (2004) proposes that graduates should make their skills more explicit to employers.
  
  We believe that the expectations of employers should be further analysed. Harvey (1999a, p 13) put forward that employability is about the relationship between higher education and employment. According to Harvey (1999a, p 13), “employability raises fundamental questions about the purpose and structure of higher education”. It touches the balance of power between the education provider and the participants in the learning experience. According to him “employability is not about training or add-on skills but about how higher education develops critical, reflective, empowered learners”.
  
  We are convinced that the current demands of the fast changing labour market require interdisciplinary teaching and specific skill development. Every discipline should make its own analysis - based on its strengths and weaknesses - of which skills should be developed for lifelong learning. This is happening at the moment in many companies which set up their own executive programmes for their employees, often directed by university professors.
  
  It seems that most European higher education institutions do not yet consider lifelong learning as one of their core activities. They have not committed to lifelong learning as much as they could. This can be deduced from the fact that they are not so concerned with the needs of employability, nor with the pedagogical and organisational changes necessary to take this forward. A problem of the mismatch between the labour market and the graduates of our higher education institutions still exists according to Quintin (2008), Director General for Education and Culture at the European Commission. Some university leaders and government representatives responsible for HE, however, would say that it is not a part of their role to solve these problems and that this match cannot be expected (Teichler, 2009).
  
  Models which provide another type of education more adapted to the needs of diverse and sometimes large groups in society are less well known. Problems arise when traditional universities want to fulfil multiple missions (including life long learning) without proper conceptual models and insufficient support.
  
  Technology has been able to rejuvenate many businesses. Many higher education institutions have invested in ICT, but are not fully exploiting it. Discussions about e-learning strategies are confusing, because of the multiple terms and practices used to refer to ICT applications: from ICT as an administrative tool, to a pedagogical tool on campus or in distance education, to a virtual university.
  
  The fact that ICT could play an important role in the development of institutional strategies for lifelong learning and even in the whole organisation of the university is not always recognized, at least not by the top management of most traditional higher education institutions. In the UK, the Cooke report (2008) stated in the introduction (p 7, 2.1.): “ICT is not always considered strategically by senior management against the business needs of the institution”.
  
  A study for the UK Joint Information Services Committee (JISC) about how and why senior leaders do or do not integrate technology into institutional strategies of HEI’s (Duke, Jordan, Powell, 2008), found out that most members of senior management teams (SMT) lack a deep understanding of technology. They rely on the collaboration of ICT staff with complementary skills (often obtained outside the HE sector) to deliver the contribution of technology to the strategic goals of the HEI. It is not clear if leaders understand what technology can or cannot deliver.
  
  Traditional universities are struggling with the concept of ICT. Duderstadt (2000, p 108) observes that universities played leading roles in developing the information technology that is transforming society, but that they have been slow to adapt it to their own educational activities. He also states that academics are inclined to reject scholarship or technology aimed at improving learning because it might threaten familiar pedagogical paradigms. According to him, faculty members prefer endless debates about the curricula rather than discussing the total student experience.
  
  Our service would consist of making that the potential of ICT for the transformation of research, teaching and learning is understood. Members of the traditional higher education community still relate ICT use to the mastering of technical skills necessary for technical support, partly out of fear for further developments based on reflections within a strategic framework.

• Adult Education ( 0 Articles )
  

  Today, states and regions emphasize the importance of the knowledge society for their further development in a competitive environment. Various types of the knowledge society discourse exist. It has become a social phenomenon. It is an intellectual tool to describe contemporary developments. It has become a political goal (Välimaa, Hoffman, 2007).
  
  States and regions also want everybody to profit from the benefits of the knowledge society. Therefore, they favour an inclusive society, which brings more social equity. In order to realise these aims, they see new tasks for actors (such as higher education) within society, such as implementing lifelong learning strategies to keep up with the demands of the knowledge society and to build the inclusive society.
  
  Lifelong learning is here to stay for various other strategic reasons, others than those already mentioned above. Higher education providers will turn to the lifelong learner since demographic changes, such as changing birth rates and a more diverse and ageing population, will have an impact on the classic student population. They are also confronted with new demands, such as the demands from the labour market, individuals and groups of learners who require more flexibility in their acquisition of (new) knowledge and competencies. Governments have the responsibility to prepare for these challenges and to ask higher education institutions to contribute to change. The recent financial and economic crisis will increase the demand for lifelong learning. “New skills for new jobs” is a policy initiative (Expert Group European Commission, 2010) developed at the European Commission level to help ensure a better match between skills and labour market needs, building stronger bridges between the world of education and the world of work. An appropriate mix of generic competences and technical skills, including digital skills, will be required (Expert Group European Commission, 2010, p 25).
  
  New phenomena arise, which support the claim for more lifelong learning possibilities. From a survey conducted by the Princeton Survey Research Associates (2005), we learn that half of Americans aged 50 to 70 years old are eager to find work with a social impact after their primary career ends. Harvard University recently started a small experiment, which could become a third stage in university education. Student fellows aged in their fifties and sixties started a year long programme focusing on social problems such as poverty, health, education and the environment intended to help them in their careers as social entrepreneurs or as leaders of non-profit organisations (Lohr, 2008). While this initiative is aimed at the highly skilled, other initiatives described in the next paragraph concern all future employees.
  
  In an interview with Shillingford (2009), Mike Short, Vice-President for R&D Telefonica O2 Europe, and former chairman of the GSM Association, predicts that by 2020 the public sector will be doing less for education (transport and health) due to the power of mega-businesses. According to him, learning will be about acquiring the tools and technology which are needed to obtain and use information at every stage of life. People will be increasingly finding a way of using this information to derive knowledge and wisdom from the process. He states that after 2050, digital literacy will be essential to avoid mass employment. Everyone will have to be able to learn outside the class room throughout life (Shillingford, 2009).
  
  The discourse about the knowledge society is closely linked with the discourse about the information society. Information is seen as data that have been organised and communicated and that can be commodified. The speed of the technology sets no limits on the amount of information available. In the knowledge society, the information is mastered and used for innovative purposes. The commoditisation of knowledge, pedagogy and assessment is not so easy. In particular, the standardisation of pedagogy seems to be difficult since it consists of standardising human interaction (Välimaa, Hoffman, 2007, p11). On the one hand, there is this demand for more standardisation of knowledge education. On the other hand, there is the need for more complexity, flexibility and customisation.
  
  Some fundamental characteristics of the knowledge society are the acceleration of knowledge production and the intensity of innovation, the changes in accessing and acquiring knowledge, and developments of networks and of collective and collaborative activities. These characteristics could create a new dynamic in (higher) education facing several competing demands.
  
  The challenge of lifelong learning has to be met. This means the provision of education from initial education to higher education and adult continuing education. Europe’s organisations (educational and others) will have to cope with this in the middle to long term. The learning needs of individuals and the national and European education systems, both in formal and informal ways, will evolve.
  
  The concepts of lifelong learning are complex. In the preamble of its charter, the EUA mentions the confusing terminology: initial education for disadvantaged groups; continuing education and training for well-qualified graduates; and post-retirement opportunities for cultural enrichment, as well as the varying local, regional and national interpretations of these concepts. From a rather narrow concept, it has become a broader one. In view of the demographic changes (an ageing and more diverse population) in Europe, it can no longer be a box set apart for a limited group of people who did not get a higher education between 18 and 22 years old. Traditional, contemporary universities are struggling with effective and efficient strategies to organise lifelong learning. The EUA states that its member universities have to better define the overarching concepts and practices, and to clarify more precisely the contribution that can be made by creating a culture of inclusive and responsive European universities.
  
  Many factors necessary to craft a strategy for lifelong learning are not well known. Often, it is not clear who are the potential lifelong learning students. Higher education institutions do not know how to identify them and how to reach out to them. They are trying to find out which strategy should be followed to reach a huge number of potential lifelong learners with different backgrounds, coming from diverse origins, all with their own specific education, professional training and experience.
  
  A paradigm shift is necessary to properly organise lifelong learning. E-learning strategies could be a solution if digital literacy becomes essential to avoid mass unemployment.
  
  
  The Council of the European Union states in its Third Joint Report with the European Commission that “lifelong learning supports creativity and innovation and enables full economic and social participation” (p 2). It also acknowledges that implementation is still the greatest challenge for lifelong learning strategies. Strong institutional commitment, coordination and partnership with all relevant stakeholders are necessary conditions for proper implementation (p 7). According to the report, many countries have made progress in defining strategies. Progress has been made in pre-primary education, qualification frameworks and the validation of non-formal and informal learning. Nevertheless, innovative learning partnerships and sustainable funding for high quality, efficient and equitable education and training, are still not getting the necessary investments from governments across Europe.
  
  The report also states that adult participation in lifelong learning no longer achieves the EU benchmark. Until 2005, progress was made towards meeting the EU benchmark (12.5 %). In 2006, an average of 9.6 % of Europeans aged 25-64 were participating in education and training activities (slightly less than in 2005). Behind this figure, an important imbalance is hidden. Highly educated adults are more than six times as likely to participate in lifelong learning as the lowest skilled people. Among migrants, the concentration of low skills is striking. Due to demographic and labour market trends, increased demands for high skills are to be expected. As a result, there will be fewer opportunities for the lowest skilled, who will need special attention (p 12).
  
  Our service would consist of exploring with you your life long learning strategy.