As the Caribbean looks ahead to what’s in store for 2020, stakeholders are realising that saying goodbye to one decade means preparing for the next. More than half of today’s primary school pupils will grow up to take jobs that don’t exist yet. So how do you equip the Caribbean labour force for the unknown technological advances of the future? Through sweeping education reform that gives kids the tools and know-how to succeed in areas such as software development, data analytics, machine learning, e-commerce and social media.
Transformation
“Our world is beginning to embrace the fourth industrial revolution which is moving at an unprecedented and unrelenting speed. Its impact is far-reaching. It is driving tectonic changes in our labour markets,” said Dr. Warren Smith, President of the Caribbean Development Bank, recently.
For the Caribbean, technology can be a double-edged sword, taking away the routine jobs that have traditionally benefitted developing countries but also providing more opportunities for new, higher-paying work. According to a 2019 report from the World Bank Group, technology is affecting the future of work in several key ways. As digitalisation increases, the boundaries are blurring and firms are making more use of the global marketplace – using online platforms to sell to, and trade with, international partners. It is also reshaping the skills and qualifications needed from employees, according to the research which states: “The demand for less advanced skills that can be replaced by technology is declining. At the same time, the demand for advanced cognitive skills, sociobehavioral skills, and skill combinations associated with greater adaptability is rising.”
The answer, suggests the World Bank, lies in investing in human capital at every level, from childhood development to adult re-training and continuing education.
Education reform
Human capital will always be a country’s most valuable asset but realising the potential of that asset now requires lifelong learning and significant public investment in infrastructure and education. And that means a change in the way the Caribbean approaches its schooling system. According to Dr. Smith: “[There is] an urgent need for an education strategy focused on training and retraining of the labour force to meet new job market requirements. We have been talking about it forever. We must change what, how, and when people learn.”
The first and most basic criteria for modern learning is affordable access to the internet and tools such as mobile devices and online platforms. App designers, software engineers, data analysts, e-commerce experts and machine learning specialists – these are the jobs of the future and only those familiar with cutting-edge tech will satisfy tomorrow’s employers.
“These jobs will generally require an education with a high science, technology, engineering and mathematics content, an area with traditionally low enrolment in the Caribbean,” said Dr. Smith. “Strategic reforms are required to bring about radical shifts in human resource development and training. Policymakers, educators and the private sector must forge alliances to secure a match between labour market needs, curriculum development, training and skills availability.”
Alongside the need for specialised skills, soft skills such as effective decision-making, problem-solving, the ability to collaborate and communicate, and commitment to a task will always be important in the workplace. According to the World Bank Group, demand is rising for advanced cognitive skills, sociobehavioural skills and skills associated with adaptability. These soft skills are best incorporated into early childhood development, building mental capacity at the very start of a child’s educational journey.
And it’s not just early learners who can benefit from educational reform; adult training is also important as the Caribbean labour force adjusts to new demands and new careers. Those seeking to re-skill and move into new and emerging sectors need the right support if they are to succeed and create yet more economic opportunities for others. In Latin America and the Caribbean only 19 per cent of total government investment in education goes to tertiary learning, according to the World Bank, and just under half of the region’s working age adults (those aged between 15 and 64) have low reading proficiency.
Adult learning programmes have had mixed success in the region for a number of reasons. Firstly, adult brains learn differently and this is often not reflected in the structure of courses on offer. Another major factor is time constraints. It is difficult to plan learning around the demands and responsibilities of adult life and, even if training opportunities are maximised, it can be a while before the benefits are felt in terms of career progression.
Strategies and plans
The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has said it is eager to release funds to help borrowing member countries pursue education reform and “mainstream this new technological approach to education”.
Efforts are already underway. In 2016 the CDB approved just under US $24mn in financing for Saint Lucia’s Ministry of Education to improve the “quality, equity, efficiency and effectiveness of the education system”. The funds are being used to refit schools, strengthen management and help ‘diverse learners’.
On average, OECS countries spend over 17 per cent of their national budget on education, or 5-7 per cent of GDP, according to the Global Partnership for Education which helped devise a 2012-2021 education sector plan for Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines. This operates in addition to Saint Lucia’s own Education Sector Development Plan which is designed to run until next year.
In November the OECS launched ‘ProjectConnect’, an initiative which aims to provide all primary and secondary schools in the Eastern Caribbean with internet connectivity. The OECS Education Development Management Unit is set to meet with OECS governments in early 2020 for a conference that will develop a roadmap for getting all schools in the sub-region online.
The outcome of all these plans and sector strategies has yet to be seen, but there are signs of encouraging change in Saint Lucia. The prime minister met with Saint Lucia’s National Students Council in December to discuss better integration of technology into the national curriculum, and construction recently began on an early childhood development centre in Gros Islet, funded by the CDB. In addition, the government has committed EC$ 2.5mn to the ICT Integration Project which promotes digital literacy, with the prime minister commenting: “Our education system has become unresponsive to our national development goals. It is a situation on which we must act now if we are to move our nation forward.”
