Post-UNGA Report: Education & Sustainability by MG Publishing

EDUCATION AND SUSTAINABILITY Post-UNGA Report on the Intersection of Education Systems and Climate Action.

Special Post-UNGA Report by

In Partnership with Qatar Foundation &WISE

Copyright © by Diplomatic Courier/Medauras Global Publishing 2006-2021 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. First Published 2006. Published in the United States by Medauras Global and Diplomatic Courier. Mailing Address: 1660 L Street, NW, Suite 501, Washington, DC, 20036 | www.diplomaticourier.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data ISBN: 978-1-942772-07-1 (Digital) ISBN: 978-1-942772-06-4 (Print) LEGAL NOTICE. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form—except brief excerpts for the purpose of review—without written consent from the publisher and the authors. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information in this publication; however, the authors, the editors, Diplomatic Courier, and Medauras Global make no warranties, express or implied, in regards to the information and disclaim all liability for any loss, damages, errors, or omissions. EDITORIAL. The essays both in print and online represent the views of their authors and do not reflect those of the editors and the publishers. While the editors assume responsibility for the selection of the articles, the authors are responsible for the facts and interpretations of their articles. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information in this publication, however, Medauras Global and the Diplomatic Courier make no warranties, express or implied in regards to the information, and disclaim all liability for any loss, damages, errors, or omissions. PERMISSIONS. None of the articles can be reproduced without their permission and that of the publishers. For permissions please email the editors at: info@medauras.com with your written request. COVER DESIGN. Cover design by Qatar Foundation. Adapted for Diplomatic Courier by Marc Garfield.

EDUCATION AND SUSTAINABILITY Post-UNGA Report on the Intersection of Education Systems and Climate Action.

Special Post-UNGA Report by

AUTHOR WINONA ROYLANCE EDITOR ANA C. ROLD ART DIRECTOR MARC GARFIELD PUBLISHER DIPLOMATIC COURIER | MEDAURAS GLOBAL WASHINGTON, DC THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS & PARTNERS QATAR FOUNDATION | THE PERMANENT MISSION OF THE STATE OF QATAR TO THE UNITED NATIONS | WORLD INNOVATION SUMMIT ON EDUCATION

WELCOME

t is no longer news that the disruption the world has experienced the past year and a half due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for our children, our schools, our homes, and our planet. Now more than ever we need to build resilient and innovative education models that prepare students to solve for issues beyond their own boundaries. This is why Diplomatic Courier was proud to partner this year with Qatar Foundation during UNGA 76’s Global Goals Week to organize a four-part series of high-level meetings focused on the intersection of progressive education and sustainability. We began our first day’s session with a discussion centered on how we can build more progressive education systems capable of empowering us to become more involved in climate action. The session featured leaders from Pre-University Education at Qatar Foundation, the Smithsonian Science Education Center, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and Childhood Education International. The second forum explored new models of impact investments in EdTech, featuring leaders from the World Bank Group, Mastercard Foundation, and the World Innovation Summit on Education. The 4 | UNGA 76

speakers discussed growing trends of impact investors who have begun working on investment strategies that deliver both financial returns and also advance on solving towards the UN SDGs. The third forum shifted the attention to youth and decision making, featuring leaders from Educate Lanka Foundation, the Digital Citizen Fund, the Amal Alliance, and the World Innovation Summit on Education. Since the coming generation of young leaders will be the ones tasked with the burden of managing some of humanity’s biggest crises, how can we truly include them in decision-making now? The fourth and final session in the series, looked at how digital credentialing and recognition systems will broaden the range and quality of learning opportunities. Leaders from Emsi Burning Glass, BrightHive, T3 Innovation Network, Weaving Lab, and Kaplan University gave insights on the brave new world of the skills economy, micro-badging, and credentialing. Each day brought together thousands of participants across multiple time-zones who interacted with the presenters in several digital platforms. The simultaneous live broadcasting carried out by Qatar Foundation during the four mini-summits allowed for unprecedented accessibility. A silver lining of the pandemic has been the ability to bring high-level speakers and meetings to groups of people usually underrepresented at UNGA. This series allowed for people to view, learn, and interact with the speakers and share how they - as individuals or as members of their own organizations - are contributing to solving the SDGs. After all, as we repeatedly said during the series, solving the SDGs is everyone’s business. We are thrilled to present the key takeaways from the series and we hope you will join us in the discussions that we and our partners at the Qatar Foundation and the World Innovation Summit on Education will continue to present during this multilateral season. Join us next in October at the G20 Summit in Italy, in November at the COP26 meetings in Glasgow, and in December at the WISE summit in Doha.

Ana C. Rold Diplomatic Courier Washington, DC October 2021 DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 5

CLIMATE ACTION AND SUSTAINABILITY

Photo by Markus Spiske via Unsplash.

CLIMATE ACTION AND SUSTAINABILITY BUILDING MORE PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION SYSTEMS FOR CLIMATE ACTION Presenters: Buthaina Al Nuaimi, President of Pre-University Education, Qatar Foundation Dr. Carol O’Donnell, Executive Director, Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) Diane Whitehead, CEO, Childhood Education International Jamil Ahmad, Director for Intergovernmental Affairs, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Moderator: Dominic Regester, Contributing Editor, Diplomatic Courier

ith climate change continuing to pose as our greatest global challenge yet, there is a critical need for a shift in our attitudes and lifestyles towards a greater conscientiousness for the environment and our planet—a shift that will need to begin within our education systems, and most especially our youth, around the world. However, while efforts to implement climate change education in schools have been attempted in certain regions and met with limited success, there is a need for a more systemic approach both within the education sector and cross-sectorally in order to see our collective goals towards green innovation and related skills-building receive the focus DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 9

and funding necessary to train teachers and administrators and equip students with the necessary interdisciplinary mindset to become more empowered and involved in climate action. The question is, then: how can we build more progressive education systems capable of empowering all of us to become more involved in climate action and sustainability? Climate action begins with the youth. While the issues surrounding climate change have long been a part of global discussion, curriculum involving climate action has been relatively limited. With the threat of climate change continuing to grow, it is imperative that we build more progressive education systems capable of educating and empowering students to not only become advocates for climate change, but to also become agents of change themselves. Indeed, with the world population having grown by 2.5 billion since the UN began publishing reports about climate change in 1990, we are looking at a large percentage of the population who has grown up with the climate change crisis as a significant part of their lives. With 4.5 billion youth between the ages of 14-25 today, it is important for the international community to pay attention to how we look after the interests and future of our youth, and the ways in which we can work together to raise awareness of how climate change affects our planet. In order to achieve this, therefore, it is crucial that we focus not only on the Sustainable Development Goals in regards to education and climate change, but the SDGs overall as an integrated agenda where all goals are interconnected, interrelated, and indivisible—and use this agenda to create a more holistic view of education so existing gaps and potential solutions can be identified. Universities are key to empowering both students and teachers about climate action. Transforming the skillsets of universities and teacher preparation programs is key to how we move forward about teaching climate action and sustainable development in education. Without a proper framework to train educators on not only what climate action is, but also how it relates to sustainability and how to implement these practices in the classroom, it will be difficult to tackle climate change in a more systemic way and create a 10 | UNGA 76

framework that can prepare teachers for education regarding climate action. Intersectoral and international partnerships with universities will be needed. Universities alone will not be able to put together the framework necessary to educate teachers about climate action. Therefore, it is important that universities partner with governments, education ministries, training programs, and administrations in order to build a more progressive higher education system. Building sustainability mindsets and scientific literacy in students is crucial to combatting climate change. One example of creating a framework to educate and empower youth in sustainability and climate action is the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals program. In order to empower students to become more involved in sustainable development and climate action, the Smithsonian created the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals, a framework that was based on the SDGs and the idea that while students have a lot of questions about the world around them, the fact that teachers and students may come from different cultural contexts, have unique learning dispositions, and various degrees of background knowledge, teachers may not always be able to provide them with the answers they need. Therefore, there is a need to give students the opportunity to: • Discover, or engage in serving their community to better understand the world around them, look at issues from a more local perspective and investigate these issues on a local scale. •

Understand, or use their community as a laboratory in order to engage in critical thinking about issues, slowly expanding their perspective from the local level to a larger system-wide position.

• Act, or use the information they’ve gathered to take action. In this way, students can be empowered to take charge of their own education, with educators working to help foster sustainaDIPLOMATIC COURIER | 11

bility-centered mindsets and provide resources to increase scientific literacy in students. Transformational leadership is critical to creating progressive education systems. In addition to supporting teachers with training and resources, it is also critical that leaders in education—principals, administrators, heads of schools, and key figures at the local and international levels—are a part of the process in carrying out these changes in the education system to create a more progressive education system by taking action themselves, inspiring others, and looking towards implementing new innovations. Several lessons can be learned from the COVID-19 pandemic that could help us think through possible responses to climate change. We need to create more equity through education. As the COVID-19 pandemic revealed, many complex global challenges tend to impact people in under-resourced areas the most—and those who have traditionally had the fewest resources continue to have the fewest resources. It is crucial, therefore, that we raise awareness around how we can create more equity through education—and ensure that people have the correct information they need to make informed decisions to empower themselves and their actions. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of technology. With school and work becoming largely remote during the peak of the pandemic, the importance of technologies such as computers, mobile phones, internet access and even basic access to electricity demonstrated the barriers that certain underserved populations face with a lack of access to these essential technologies during global crises. Much like the pandemic, access to technology will also be key to empowering climate action. Social and emotional learning will be essential to solving the SDGs and empowering climate action. In order to solve for the SDGs and empower climate action, it is critical that not only curriculum-based education but also social and emotional learning are integrated into education and civic 12 | UNGA 76

engagement. With social and emotional learning beginning at birth and creating a foundation for empathy, compassion, and connecting with others, it is important that these skills are further developed as students make their way through the education system. Indeed, by developing social and emotional skills such as self-awareness, engaging in social awareness, leadership skills and perspective-taking, complex global issues like climate change can be addressed in a more deep and human way. Teachers and students will drive this change. Historically, changes in school have been driven from the top down by national policy, standards and curriculum. However, what we’re seeing with climate action is the opposite. With many students beginning to advocate for ecofriendly practices and push for climate change much faster than broad climate action curriculum can be implemented, it is becoming apparent that real change will need to begin with students—and therefore, that teachers and leaders will need to interface with students in order to work together to find real solutions to the climate crisis.

DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 13

NEW MODELS OF IMPACT INVESTMENT IN EDTECH

Photo by Jess Bailey via Unsplash.

NEW MODELS OF IMPACT INVESTMENT IN EDTECH Presenters: Neku Edun, Regional Lead at Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning in ICT, Mastercard Foundation Robert Hawkins, Global Lead for Technology and Innovation in Education, World Bank Rohan Wadhwa, Principal Lumos Capital Group Elyas Felfoul, Director, WISE, Qatar Foundation Moderator: Ana C. Rold, CEO & Publisher, Diplomatic Courier

espite the limited outcomes we’ve seen with impact investing in recent years, there is a growing trend of impact investors who have begun focusing more attention on investment strategies that are able to deliver financial goals while also benefiting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals—especially in the sector of EdTech funding. However, with a need for new overlapping ecosystems that can foster collaboration and partnership, new business models that can fit into a more modular education management system, and the need for entrepreneurs to have access to not just capital, but ecosystems capable of providing contributors with key skills and competencies to foster sustainable growth and accelerate innovation, our current systems may prove too calcified and disconnected to provide the necessary foundation for innovation and growth within EdTech. Therefore, it is imperative that new avenues of investment in EdTech continue DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 17

to be explored, and that adaptive ecosystems be put into place that can foster growth and innovation for entrepreneurs around the globe. We are in the midst of an education crisis. With as low as 30% of 10-year-olds able to read a simple sentence in some low-income countries, the world is currently facing a learning poverty crisis. Indeed, statistics show that by age 18, the average student in a low-income country will have only attended school for eight years, compared to the average student in high-income countries who attends school for 13 years—and that low-income countries will have only invested an average of $1,300 on a child’s education, compared to the $110,000 high-income countries spend on average on their students. With COVID-19 having accelerated this crisis and traditional funding for education from governments, households and development partners unable to fill the gaps, there is a dire need for the education sector and investors to come together to create new modular systems capable of delivering access to education for all students, regardless of region or income level. There is a large technology divide between countries. One challenge that the COVID-19 pandemic brought to light was the large gap in access to technology between high-income and low-income countries, especially in terms of access to the Internet, mobile devices and even basic electricity. As seen with schooling during the pandemic, many high-income countries were able to leverage technologies such as television, the internet, radio and mobile technologies to provide more interactivity for students who couldn’t attend school in person. However, in areas with a lack of access to such technologies, it became apparent that different forms of connectivity would be needed. Similarly, as the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated to governments that there is a need to digitalize their state schools at a faster rate, there still exist many low-income countries where despite limited access to computers and the internet, teachers are often computer illiterate themselves. This gap in access to technology and lack of teacher training capabilities highlights the need for more teacher training curriculum, as well as 18 | UNGA 76

a strengthening of the basic landscape of EdTech in low-income countries so that future innovations applied in high-income countries can benefit low-income countries as well. There are gaps in the education system in low-income countries that need to be filled. While many high-income countries were able to switch to remote learning and working when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, In Africa, numerous people did not—and still do not—have the luxury of learning and working from home. It is crucial, therefore, that before new innovations and technology solutions be built, both stakeholders within Africa and internationally need to work together to plug in the infrastructure gaps in low-income countries, and to create an environment where young people can access dignified and fulfilling work. This will ultimately require finding local solutions that may already exist and working to find how to support and catalyze these solutions in order to solve for each location’s unique challenges. Technology is key to transforming education systems. Investing in EdTech provides a unique opportunity for education systems and stakeholders to think differently about how education services can be delivered. According to the World Bank, there are five key principles to designing and implementing technology that can transform our education systems: • Ask why. Ask about everything, from the changes that need to be made in the classroom to the resources and funding that governments can provide, as well as how to think differently about resources currently in place. • Design for scale. As with most any investment, focusing on those most marginalized first will lead to more scalable solutions. Additionally, it is important to focus on human-centered design that hones in on the needs of teachers, students and administrations, and that can empower schools to make good budget decisions and effective use of resources. • Empower teachers. Education is a social endeavor, and teachers are at the center of any effective educational process. Therefore, it is important that technology be put into place DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 19

that can empower teachers to be innovative, find solutions and network with other teachers while also easing certain administrative burdens on teachers. • Engage the ecosystem. As any use of EdTech innovations cannot be implemented by education administrations alone, it is crucial that administrations partner with other stakeholders at the local, regional and international levels. • Be data-driven. In order to implement EdTech effectively, there is a need to build off of global knowledge and existing evidence to help schools come up with new innovations and create a more effective culture of learning. More importantly, it is important to not only focus solely on data-collection systems and learning systems, but to have all systems—stemming from human resources to content management systems and teacher training systems—communicate and collaborate more effectively in order to foster systems that are modular and interoperable, and therefore more agile. Ecosystems of support are essential. Entrepreneurs need ecosystems of support in order to thrive. More than just financing, entrepreneurs are in need of connections to partners with relevant skillsets and resources and are able to provide business development support. Therefore, it is essential that ecosystems be put into place that can support in co-creating, collaborating and connecting entrepreneurs to relevant stakeholders, in order to create an environment that reduces the risk of failure and provides a system where they can feel supported and thrive long-term. An ecosystem of stakeholders in EdTech needs to be created in order to bring in new models of learning. In order to accelerate innovation in the EdTech space, it is important to create networks between individual schools and the larger school system. In order to accomplish this at the system level, it is important to encourage ministries of education to identify what are the types of capacities they have, and to connect them with stakeholders who have the capacity to provide innovative content and better access and connectivity in areas they are lacking. Similarly at the school level, there is a need for principals to think about how to support teachers and engage with students 20 | UNGA 76

and parents, as well as foster peer learning. It is also important that networks and support systems for teachers be created to help them connect with other teachers and bring in additional expertise when needed. Impact investing is key to EdTech. In order to help entrepreneurs grow, it is important that impact investors focus on three things: quality, access, and equity—and perhaps most importantly, good outcomes. In order to invest well, you need to listen first. In the space of EdTech, it is important to talk to teachers, schools and principals to discover what their biggest priorities are as well as what challenges they may face that are being overlooked—and to then invest in companies that can provide solutions to these challenges. For example, after Lumos Capital Group invested in a company Elevation Education that served the growing body of English language learning (ELL) students in classrooms in the U.S., they were able to begin providing tools to administrations and teachers who were previously unable to differentiate things in the classroom for traditional learners and ELL students, and therefore begin to serve the needs of ELL students more effectively. There are alternative models of financing that can be used in education and EdTech. In addition to traditional forms of investing, alternative models of financing, such as income share agreements being used with universities, can help realign capital with the right incentives. For example, by changing the traditional tuition model to one where a student is charged a portion of their income post-completement of their degree, schools are then incentivized to help students get jobs after graduation— benefitting both students and future employers. There is a plethora of potential financial streams for start-ups. From non-dilutive capital such as grants, competitions to support entrepreneurs and foundation and government funding, to cohort programs such as accelerator or incubator programs, to dilutive capital such as more traditional forms of investment capital, both start-ups and growing companies have several different financial streams to explore when looking to grow their business.

DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 21

INVOLVING YOUTH IN DECISION-MAKING

Photo by Chang Duong via Unsplash.

CREATIVITY AND SUSTAINABILITY: INVOLVING YOUTH IN DECISION-MAKING Presenters: Manjula Dissanayake, Executive Director, Educate Lanka Foundation Roya Mahboob, CEO of Digital Citizen Fund Danielle De La Fuente, Founder and CEO, Amal Alliance Stavros Yiannouka, CEO, WISE Aysha Al-Mudahka, Director of Strategic Initiatives and Partnership Development, Qatar Foundation Moderator: Dominic Regester, Contributing Editor, Diplomatic Courier

e are facing a series of potentially existential crises, from climate change to widening income inequality to pandemics and a rapidly deteriorating geopolitical environment. Unlike past global challenges, however, the challenges facing the world today are posed to leave a disproportionately large impact on future generations. With climate action in particular, the window of opportunity for meaningful action is no more than a few decades at best—but with youth activism as a growing force seeking to make real transformable changes the world will need, it is critical that the youth of today are given real access to decision makers and the ability to influence policy debates DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 25

and solutions. The question is, then: how can key decision makers leverage the potential and creativity of this generation to make real actionable solutions? We need to look for tangible ways to empower youth in climate action. With immediate action needed now to fight the climate crisis, the youth need to be involved in their future—and therefore, they need to be given real access to decision makers and decision making. According to WISE, this can be done along three axes: education, economics and engagement. • Education. With less than 10% of 15-year-olds taking the OECD’s PISA test demonstrating competency in advanced mathematical thinking and reasoning as well as in comprehending lengthy texts, there is an urgent need to create a common intellectual and ethical problem-solving framework which needs to come from education systems prioritizing scientific literacy, reasoning, and applied ethics. Without these basics being covered in education, it will be difficult to future-proof students for a highly uncertain future. • Economics. With an unprecedented amount of economic issues facing the youth today such as highly uneven access to capital and struggles to finding meaning in many of the jobs available, young people have become very skeptical of the prevailing economic model. Therefore, there is a need for interventions such as an economic stimulus that is directed at the youth and, a need for broad-based acceleration and investment programs that allow young people to start businesses. • Engagement. There is a need for young people to actively engage with international bodies such as the United Nations and its constituent agencies, and for these bodies to take the lead in facilitating this engagement by giving youth a real voice in decision making and the opportunity to help set the agenda. There is a need for innovative solutions to address the equity and access gap in education. The Educate Lanka Foundation is one program working to address the equity and access gap in education. Under the theme 26 | UNGA 76

of “think global, act local,” The Educate Lanka Foundation aims to provide access to quality education to underprivileged and marginalized Sri Lankan youth through not only formal education, but also through different learning opportunities to develop the values, skills and competencies they will need to survive and thrive in work, school and life. Through micro-scholarships and a hybrid pedagogy that embraces multiple modes of education platforms such as traditional in-person classes, virtual learning and self-learning, the Educate Lanka Foundation is able to locally mentor their students locally in Sri Lanka—and through partnerships with multiple global stakeholders and Sri Lankans abroad, they are then able to connect them to mentors and peers internationally to broaden their global perspective. it is through this process of bringing together the private sector, global partners, institutions and a wide range of curriculums that the foundation is able to bring in perspectives and knowledge from outside he students’ marginalized communities and provide them with the foundational social and emotional skills needed for students to create actionable solutions both in their local communities and globally. The Amal Alliance aims to fill the equity and access gap for refugee youth. By providing displaced and disenfranchised youth with psycho-social support, social and emotional learning, early childhood development and peace education, The Amal Alliance aims to provide access to education for children in refugee camps in several countries with a large refugee population. Indeed, even without formal education structures in place, it is critical to provide children in non-formal settings with social and emotional skills, interpersonal skills and life skills through various curriculum that uses techniques such as mindfulness, play, dance, reading and writing, and to more importantly make sure to take into consideration the particular needs of children who may be dealing with trauma, stress and a toxic environment. The Amal Alliance accomplishes this by tapping into the refugee population itself and training the younger adult generation to then impart curriculum to their community, as well as by bringing families into the education process. Technology can provide equal access to everyone. Until recently in Afghanistan, there has been a trend towards installing IT centers in public schools to provide training for young girls. In DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 27

these centers, they not only learn technological skills, but entrepreneurial skills as well. From technology classes centered around working with computers, social media, coding, robotics and BlockChain to entrepreneurial classes involving managing money and creating businesses, young Afghan women in these programs have been able to build start-ups in a variety of sectors and connect to the private sector to work with existing businesses. There are certain critical skills education institutions need to invest in to help young people prepare for and be an active part of decisions that affect their future. There is a need to emphasize literacy, reasoning and applied ethics. With the fundamental knowledge areas of literacy, numeracy and scientific literacy critical to learning yet often underdeveloped in education institutions around the world, it is critical that we focus on building the fundamentals of education first—not just because the world needs more engineers, doctors and innovators, but because these domains provide a common foundation around which we can communicate, build consensus and problem-solve. There is a need for social and emotional competencies. In order to increase learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy, it is important that students’ social and emotional health is taken into account, and that prioritizing wellbeing is at the forefront. Therefore, it is important for education institutions to also focus on skills such as creativity, self-awareness and empathy to help increase students’ social and emotional competencies, as well as promote diversity and inclusion. Creativity, free thinking and frontier thinking are key. In order to create sustainable solutions to the world’s problems, creativity and innovative free thinking that offer solutions to age-old problems are essential—but without access to education that promotes these forms of thinking, the youth of today will not be able to create the sustainable solutions of tomorrow.

28 | UNGA 76

DIGITAL CREDENTIALING AND RECOGNITION SYSTEMS

Image by Fabio Oxyis via Unsplash.

DIGITAL CREDENTIALING & RECOGNITION SYSTEMS: CAN THEY BROADEN THE RANGE & QUALITY OF LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES? Presenters: Kelly Ryan Bailey, Global Skills Evangelist, Emsi Burning Glass Matthew Gee, Co-Founder and CEO, BrightHive Phillip Long, LER Community Manager, T3 Innovation Network Rosie Clayton, WISE Fellow and Co-Founder of Weaving Lab Brandon Busteed, Global Head for Learn-Work Innovation, Kaplan University Moderator: Ana C. Rold, CEO & Publisher, The Diplomatic Courier

ith a shift in the importance of values in different kinds of skills, attributes and attitudes employers and society as a whole consider important for success in work and life today, we are seeing a diversification in the types of learning and skills development that many job seekers are acquiring—be it through formal education, informal education or even non-formal learning in the workplace. As the types of learning continue to diversify, however, it is critical that there is also a shift towards employers and educational institutions beginning to recognize these credentials, and that more structures be put DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 33

in place to bridge communication around digital credentialing between educational institutions, governments and employers. It is this scaling of more portable credentials, therefore, that has the ability to not only encourage students and life-long learners to pursue learning endeavors outside of formal education, but also to incentivize businesses, employers and organizations to align their education initiatives with a new common standard. However, the question remains: despite the promise of a future of more personalized learning and learner-centered hiring processes, will this technology be able to gain acceleration? There are challenges that need scalable solutions before digital credentialing can become widely implemented. While digital credentialing is on the rise, the lack of momentum in implementing credentials and the relatively limited-scale of their implementation have left many job seekers wary of which credentials are of actual economic benefit to the person who completes them. Similarly, doubts on the side of companies and institutions have been raised as to whether or not their businesses will have the technology and capacity to implement digital credentials long-term—and whether or not it’s worth it. There still exists a gap between what employers want and what jobseekers can provide. Despite the fact that employers nowadays are looking for job seekers who are both broadly educated and specifically skilled, recent surveys reveal that higher education institutions show significant doubts surrounding the work readiness of university graduates. Indeed, with education often being considered as having either a college degree or alternative credentials— rather than the possibility of having both—it is important that emphasis be put on the ability to receive alternative credentials as a compliment to college degrees, rather than as a standalone certificate. In fact, a recent Kaplan survey of two thousand college students found that when asked if their college or university provides alternative credentials, only 14% said yes— but when asked if they would like to achieve an alternative credential if offered by their university, 72% of all college students surveyed said yes, showing that while alternative credentials at the higher education level may not be broadly available just 34 | UNGA 76

yet, implementing more credentialing may greatly benefit college students. Digital credentials are still limited to certain countries. While the US has been a leader in developing and investing in potential solutions in the digital credentialing space, there is still a lack of digital credentialing initiatives globally—and therefore, an enormous opportunity for leadership in regions around the world that have not yet tapped into the technology. However, with technology still remaining relatively limited, many institutions have raised concerns about the portability and longterm costs of these credential systems. Luckily for jobseekers, with advancements in digital credentialing technology—such as technology that has enabled data in the form of a QR code to be printed out on a piece of paper that can create accessibility to digital credentialing for individuals with a lack of access to technology—implementations are slowly being put into place to encourage better access to digital credentialing for everyone. Technology in digital credentialing is still limited—but growing. There is a need for more interoperability between different technology systems that would allow digital badges to become more portable between different providers, as well as a need for more integration of digital credentialing with job recruitment platforms, HR providers and other related organizations. However, while bringing the digital credentialing technology to scale may still take some time—and building out the technology on a single company level may prove a difficult task—there are many groups today developing technology platforms that are open sourced or accessible in some way for organizations wishing to create digital credentialing to partner with, such as the Velocity Network Foundation and the T3 Network Hub. Various forms of digital credentialing are being successfully implemented. The LER hub is promoting the digital resumes of the future. Learning and Employment Records, also known as LER’s, are a subset of a form of cryptography-protected credentials that are being developed by the LER hub created to recognize achievements and skills that are digitally-linked to an individual in order to prove that whatever has been awarded to an individual is in DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 35

fact that which the individual is claiming in that credential. Even more promising, LER’s can be used as a way to promote lifelong learning not only through formal education, but also through skills and attributes gathered in our jobs, in the community and throughout the course of our life that can be stored in the LER and credibly validated and endorsed. Indeed, while LER’s can be viewed as a sort of in-depth digital resume that incorporates evidence-based attributes such as badges, certificates and work and education history, they also give the individual the opportunity to curate and rearrange their data in order to tell their narrative in their own personal way—and more importantly, give individuals the peace of mind that this data has not been modified or manipulated. Digital credentialing isn’t only for digitally advanced institutions. While there may be a misconception that institutions need to be farther along in digital maturity to get started in digital credentialing, there are a lot of digital credentialing initiatives where organizations are starting anywhere along the digital maturity spectrum. One example is Southern New Hampshire University who uses digital credentials to automate how the institution gives credit for learning that’s happened someplace else, such as post-secondary institutions, work and even less-formal settings. Similarly in Haiti, there is a team who is taking steps to lay the foundation of digital credentialing in the textile industry. In order to implement digital credentialing mechanisms, therefore, it is important to look at the digital transformation initiatives they already have underway and then fit digital credentialing into the already existing technology and initiatives. Digital credentialing provides the opportunity to reintroduce the human element into the hiring process. Digital credentials help verify work products, not just content learned. More than just the work history and educational background that traditional resumes provide, digital credentialing also allows learners to represent the work that they have undertaken, the kinds of activities the student is doing, and the evidence that is generated from these activities to demonstrate that achievement. 36 | UNGA 76

Endorsements in the digital space can help bring back the human element. While networks of personal interactions and trust existed long before technology, rapid advances in technology having abstracted many aspects of our lives and our ability to connect with one another. However, with digital endorsements from colleagues, professionals and other people in one’s network, people can now express their support and affirmation that someone has done something valuable—and therewithin creating new digital networks of trust that didn’t exist in the past. Digital credentialing allows individuals to take ownership of their data. There is a shift in the information economy. While we currently live in a world where personal data is a commodity to be sold, digital credentialing may be part of a shift towards a new data economy where the individual has complete agency and ownership of the data—and can therefore decide what part of the data can and cannot be sold and maintain complete privacy. As a global community, we are in the middle of renegotiating our digital social contracts. With society as a whole trying to re-figure the rules of the digital world, the principles of privacy and individual ownership of data need to come first, and there needs to be full visibility of who’s doing what with one’s data. While it may be difficult to implement the principles of privacy and ownership of data due to the current system of financial incentives, partnering with organizations that also put privacy and ownership of data first can help promote these principles for the future.

DIPLOMATIC COURIER | 37

Special Post-UNGA Report by

In Partnership with Qatar Foundation &WISE