Education
What is the role of intellectuals in society?
The role of intellectuals in society is a complicated subject. However, one cannot dispute what a meaningful and crucial impact intellectuals can make, particularly in today’s rapidly changing times.
As I see it, intellectuals are those who have diverse wisdom and foresight, who apply their intellect and forward-looking visions for the purpose of awakening society. They help to divert the masses from what is unwise and wrong toward what is righteous and the good. No wonder, then, that Vietnamese word for intellectual, “trí thức”, is a combination of “mind” and “awaken”.
There are three key...
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March 15, 2013
Why investing in education is good for business
Vikas Pota, Young Global Leader Class 2013, explains why the private sector should invest more in education
The thing I really don’t understand is why no big business figure has stepped forward to take a leadership position on improving education. It seems odd on many levels, particularly as it is the private sector that benefits from an educated, skilled workforce.
Let’s take the evidence: a UNESCO policy paper released just before this year’s World Economic Forum Annual Meeting highlights that the private sector’s contributions to education are less than 0.1% of the profits of some of...
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March 15, 2013
Providing quality education to Latin America’s rural areas
I am fascinated by the prospect of new technologies and innovative private-public partnerships that disrupt the status quo in education in Latin America. In the past, governments struggled to find resources for education and their impoverished citizens were unable to invest in their future. Education spending – as a percentage of GDP – was very low across the region for decades.
Today, governments are directing greater resources to education, particularly to primary education, thanks to their rising incomes. The private sector is pouring in more capital as well, particularly in higher...
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March 14, 2013
Educating South Sudanese students with MP3s
Having recently emerged from nearly four decades of conflict in which two 2 million people were killed and four million displaced, everything in South Sudan needs to be built or rebuilt. As the world’s newest country, it also has the world’s lowest education indicators.
Countries like South Sudan struggling to deliver quality education are exactly why we created the solar-powered Lifeplayer MP3 in the first place. Our Lifeplayers have arrived in the country and so have I, to train in their use and care.
When I last visited here five years ago, there were just 50 miles of tarred road in a...
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March 13, 2013
The future of China’s ant tribe
In China, a special group of educated youth lives on the margins of society. They are the young people who were born and raised in the countryside, who went on to university, but are unable to land their dream job in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai after graduation.
They call themselves the “ant tribe”, partly due to their industrious, hard-working nature, but also in reference to their cramped and meagre living conditions. The ant tribe illustrates a drastic mismatch between China’s educated youth and its economic boom.
This mismatch partly came from China’s existing economic model,...
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March 13, 2013
Brown’s world
Five days after the World Economic Forum ‘s Annual Meeting in Davos, here I am at Twitter headquarters in relatively balmy San Francisco, attending the Global Education & Technology Forum co-hosted by Gordon Brown, Laurene Powell Jobs and Dick Costolo. I admit I had to look up Laurene and Dick. Then my jaw dropped, mostly at my own ignorance. The closest I had come to the legendary Steve Jobs was owning an iPad and there she was, Laurene, the love of his life. Twitter CEO Costolo had opened his doors to “an intimate group of approx 100 people from a range of disciplines” to explore...
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February 20, 2013
The role of social entrepreneurs
The expansion of social services in developing countries offers the greatest opportunity for social entrepreneurs to create systemic change. In the world of social entrepreneurship, emphasis is placed on selling products and services to the poor, overlooking the spending limitations that lower income families face. But slums are devoid of private schools and hospitals for a reason: the disposable income simply isn’t there. Governments need to fill this gap in the most effective way possible, and social entrepreneurs are the solution.
Many social entrepreneurs seek to lower costs until...
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February 15, 2013
A creative future for education
Tim Brown discusses how creativity has an essential role in education
It was good to see a strong focus on education at Davos this year. There seems to be a growing realization that basic issues such as education, health and employment require fundamental reinvention if we are to face the coming challenges of a more volatile interconnected world.
One session at the Annual Meeting that I particularly enjoyed discussed the addition of creative and artistic education to the traditional STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) agenda. John Maeda, Carol Becker, Justine Cassell and Tomas...
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February 6, 2013
Imagining the universities of the future
We will see increasingly creative partnerships between for-profit entities and traditional universities, writes Linda Lorimer, Vice-President of Yale University.
We often hear references to “the” future of the university. In fact, the WEF has a Global Agenda Council dedicated to the subject. But the members of our GAC identified early that there is no one destination or definition of the university of tomorrow—rather universities will have multiple futures and multiple identities. We will continue to benefit from a wide spectrum of institutions: those universities that are primarily teaching...
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January 26, 2013
Education needs a Bill Gates
Pauline Rose addresses the need for new investment on education
There should be little need to make the business case for education. It is intrinsically tied to all positive development outcomes. Economic growth, health, nutrition and democracy are all boosted by quality schooling. If all children in low-income countries left school with basic reading skills, poverty would fall by 12% – and that’s good for business. The private sector benefits directly from an educated, skilled workforce.
The private sector spends only US$ 683 million per year to support education in developing countries,...
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January 25, 2013
Who is responsible for training today’s workforce?
The need to prepare talent for the fast-changing world of work is a top priority for companies focused on meeting their business goals for 2013. Yet, training today’s talent to take on new roles in transforming industries is not only the responsibility of companies. This priority is also shared by all stakeholders in regional economies, including governments, educators and trade groups.
Companies that I meet are continually learning how to reinforce their workforce strategy, at both local and global levels. They face a constantly changing mix of local dynamics, such as an ageing workforce and...
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January 24, 2013
Wanted: 600 million workers
The future of the economy depends on getting people with the right skills to match the next generation of jobs, says Bradford L. Smith.
We stand in the midst of a global economic tragedy. Around the world, new job opportunities are being created that offer the promise of prosperity. Yet hundreds of millions of people find themselves locked out of these opportunities because they lack the necessary education and skills.
Unless current trends are reversed, this opportunity gap will deepen, creating even greater income disparities and stifling economic recovery worldwide. To avoid this outcome...
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January 24, 2013
Ideas @Davos: Unlocking education
The textbooks of the future will be digital, personalised and available to all, says Jose Ferreira.
Education is the ultimate gateway problem. Whether the goal is to address dinner city poverty or threats to the environment, improvements in both the adaptability and delivery of education will help to solve them, argues Jose Ferreira in the video above.
Unlocking Education describes the next revolution in education: adaptive learning. Online schooling can lower the cost of textbooks and solve the access problem in the developing world. As a supplement to conventional schooling, it allows for a...
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January 23, 2013
The school of the future has no doors
Paolo Quattrone on how education is changing in the digital age.
Think of a lecture in a traditional classroom at the beginning of the 20th century: Lines of (mainly) men seated on a huge lecture theatre, listening in silence to a professor declaiming his lecture. Think of a classroom today. After ten minutes from the start of the class, students are already uncomfortable in their chairs, checking e-mails on their tablets and very likely rating the professor’s lecture in real time on a social network.
People of my age (mid-forties) have learnt what they know by spending hours reading printed...
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January 23, 2013
Why we must close the education gap
Education is crucial to develop the world’s most valuable resource: youth.
In a world where 61 million children are not in primary school and 25,000 girls are forced into marriage and taken out of the education system each day, it is incumbent upon the international community to close the education gap.
Every child and young adult should have access to learning, so they can acquire the right skillset to succeed in their lives. To achieve this, urgent action is needed. Addressing the problem involves financing schemes, training programmes, teacher development and resource sharing. Most...
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January 23, 2013
Training and employing youth, looking to the future
I’m heading off to the World Economic Forum in Davos to talk about training of young people, to me a major challenge that will have profound impacts upon the world we live in if we do not address it properly. This places it at the heart of our work at Friends-International.
Youth unemployment is rising dramatically across the world – 75 million are affected: a rate of unemployment 3 times higher than for adults! 10% of these are categorized as NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training). With little improvement in sight, there are heavy consequences: immediate negative economic and...
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January 21, 2013
Why is childhood education a long-term investment?
Nobel Laureate James Heckman’s rallying cry of “We cannot afford to postpone investing in children until they become adults, nor can we wait until they reach school age – a time when it may be too late to intervene” is convincing, but the much needed investment in early childhood education remains a hard sell because of the significant delay between policy and practice change. Among OECD countries, for example, the Nordic countries invest between 1.4% and 2.3% of GDP in early childhood education. Other countries invest less: for example Austria, Hungary and France between 0.5% and 1%, and...
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January 14, 2013
A few lessons from the year of the MOOCs
The World Economic Forum convened a meeting of its network of senior university administrators and selected guests to a meeting in New York earlier this year to discuss the incredible proliferation of online course offerings and the ensuing race by academic institutions to sign up to these platforms, create their own, or dismiss them entirely. On that day, the group concluded that the likely evolution would result in a mix of learning experiences, with face-to-face, on-campus and online interactions each remaining a necessary component for the future of higher education and unable to stand...
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December 20, 2012
Why we should invest more in the education of girls
Shashi Tharoor is India’s Minister of State for Human Resource Development. His most recent book is Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st Century.
NEW DELHI – One of the more difficult questions I found myself being asked when I was a United Nations under-secretary-general, especially when addressing a general audience, was: “What is the single most important thing that can be done to improve the world?”
It’s the kind of question that tends to bring out the bureaucrat in even the most direct of communicators, as one feels obliged to explain the complexity of the challenges confronting...
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December 19, 2012
Why early childhood education is a good start
The economic and social conditions for resilient dynamism can be created from a very early stage. Building on the intuition of pioneers such as John Dewey and Maria Montessori (the latter’s 60th anniversary was celebrated this year), there is now striking scientific evidence of the social and economic benefits of early childhood education. Early education has the potential to train children to become citizens who are more likely to succeed in school and to contribute to society in their later lives through enhanced economic productivity, and taxes.
Yet, guaranteeing access and quality of...
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December 18, 2012
The power of a nudge
On the last day of the Summit on the Global Agenda in Dubai, Professor David Bloom of Harvard, Chair of our Global Agenda Council on Education & Skills, asked me: “Were you there at the dinner last night? I mentioned your work at my table and we wanted to see your demo.” I nodded, I was there. How could I possibly pass up a gala dinner on the banks of Dubai Creek?
“Tarun was there, do you know Tarun Khanna? He was curious.” I knew Professor Khanna only through his insightful book, Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours. The tug I was feeling...
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November 30, 2012
The Global Gender Gap Report 2012
The Global Gender Gap Index introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2006, is a framework for capturing the magnitude and scope of gender-based disparities and tracking their progress. The Index benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, political, education- and health-based criteria, and provides country rankings that allow for effective comparisons across regions and income groups, and over time. The rankings are designed to create greater awareness among a global audience of the challenges posed by gender gaps and the opportunities created by reducing them. The methodology and...
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October 16, 2012
What will the university of the future look like?
In New York City on 12 June, the World Economic Forum brought together senior university administrators, faculty staff and entrepreneurs in online education and university ventures to discuss online learning. Everyone is talking about this “tsunami”, which could have the same impact on higher education as the Internet has had on printed newspapers.The debate centred on what future universities will look like as a whole, not just their online components. The participants strongly agreed that education is broader than content. There is still some concern that the physical intimacy and...
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June 28, 2012
Think Unlimited
In 2010 I received funding from the Jackson Institute of Global Affairs to conduct research on the obstacles to curriculum reform in the UAE and Jordan. Throughout my research one of the most obvious (and expected) observations I arrived at, was that education reform efforts were completely stifled by systemic realities—such as high stakes exams and a lack of continuity in reform efforts—which made the system a complete nightmare to navigate. At the end of 2011, while working in Dubai, I met Joi Ito, of the MIT Media Lab, who advised me to implement innovations outside the system and all its...
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June 27, 2012
When Hogwarts came to Harvard
To the delight of muggles and half-bloods alike, April brought the opening of Pottermore, a digital portal for the best-selling novels about Hogwarts’ young wizard that have captured the hearts and minds of a generation. The wizarding world of Harry Potter has taken the planet by storm, selling nearly half a billion copies and reconnecting children and adults everywhere with a love of reading. An international phenomenon, it has been translated into over 70 languages, becoming a cultural touchstone worldwide.What universal appeal might the story of Harry Potter, with its upstart wizards and...
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June 6, 2012
Educating the next East Asian generation for success
Integrating skills, education and employment is particularly relevant to the theme of the World Economic Forum on East Asia – Shaping the Region’s Future through Connectivity.East Asia as a region is very young in terms of its demographic profile. As such, ensuring that youth are employable and well equipped with new skills required for today’s world is critical for the regional transformation underway.Education and skills are key ingredients to prepare the region’s youth for the task of developing inclusive economic growth and achieving a sustainable society. I find widespread commitment and...
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May 31, 2012
A good education can be found at home
At the recently concluded leadership forum held in conjunction with the ASEAN summit in Cambodia, a common theme permeated the sessions. Look East, is the mantra everyone propagated. Many ASEAN experts expressed their views on what the ASEAN identity means and what the region should be focussing on to strengthen it.Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, in his address at the ASEAN Leadership Forum aptly argued that knowledge is the connecting thread between us and deserves the greatest impetus. Education has to be our priority and not just ASEAN member states but other Asian nations too must...
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May 29, 2012
India: Learning to Read with Karaoke
Using the simple tool of same language sub-titling (SLS) on popular television programs, social entrepreneur Brij Kothari is addressing the needs of an estimated 300 million so called ‘literates’ in India who, though having attended at least primary school, have weak reading and comprehension skills. SLS is the simple action of inserting subtitles on video programs in the ‘same’ language as the audio. By inserting SLS on popular Bollywood song programs, Brij ensures that reading becomes a by-product of entertainment already consumed by the audience. Read Brij’s full profile ...
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May 23, 2012
The Future of Universities
Higher education is embracing the Internet like never before. Just recently, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced a joint venture to create a new distance-learning platform.Thanks to this platform, a student in Addis Ababa without access to adequate local education, or a secondary school science teacher in Beijing willing to take her work to the next level, can access high-quality lectures, seminars and other learning material online, and earn themselves a certificate. A young professional in São Paulo, who may not have been able to afford an MBA...
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May 11, 2012
Start with “why”… in education!
In a captivating TED talk watched by over 5 million people, Simon Sinek describes how great leaders inspire action in their listeners and followers by communicating inside out, or starting with why. Sinek provides several case studies and grounds his theory in biology (“not psychology”) focusing on our “limbic brains”.In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, I would like to extend Sinek’s thesis to the classroom. For which leaders in our society are more important than those that have the burden of educating our future generations? I would confidently argue: none.There has always been much talk...
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May 11, 2012
Building a pan-African literary agency for children
The World Economic Forum is travelling to Ethiopia this week to bring together the voices of Africa and help transform the region. 32 Global Shapers from across the continent will be attending the event. This blog post is part of the One Year One Change campaign, which shares visions for a better Africa. What change do you want to see in Africa by 2013? #1y1cAt age 11, a group of my father’s friends asked me: “what do you want to do when you grow up Debbie?” I responded proudly, “an amateur detective, just like my favorite storybook character, Nancy Drew.” They all looked...
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May 10, 2012
The educational crisis in Latin America: Collaboration is key
Latin American countries do not have the necessary educational platform to succeed in a knowledge economy. Given the government’s inability to solve this crisis, what is the role of the private and social sectors.The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests 15 year olds in math, science and reading. In its 2009 evaluation, all Latin American countries that participated (Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Peru) performed significantly below the OECD average. Beyond statistics, the picture depicted by the test is shocking: Many 15 year olds cannot access, interpret...
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April 17, 2012
Forum:Blog: Why Latin America needs to transform early childhood education
In advance of the public sessions of the World Economic Forum on Latin America starting on the 17th April Alberto Pfeifer, the Executive Coordinator of the Business Council of Latin America (CEAL), discusses the importance of transformation of early childhood education in the region.If there is one common issue addressed by all heads of state and government who have delivered speeches so far at the Business Summit of the Americas, it is education. From Mexico to Jamaica, from Chile to Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia and Costa Rica, all stressed education as the key...
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April 16, 2012
Sally Blount: Educating Latin America’s next generation
From where I sit as dean of Kellogg, key to this discussion is setting an agenda for how we best educate the Latin American workforce and its future leaders to face the complexities of the 21st century. In Mexico alone, for example, half of the population is under the age of 27. Bolstering and inspiring this younger generation, while cultivating their talents, insights and capacity for wise and complex thinking, is fundamental to the future vitality of the region. And so I am looking forward to meeting the leaders of Latin American government and private enterprise to better understand how...
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April 13, 2012
Global Education Initiative - Retrospective on Partnerships for Education Development 2003-2011
Conceived in 2003 with a mission to help make national education systems more relevant, sustainable and scalable, the Global Education Initiative (GEI) launched initiatives in Jordan, Rajasthan, Egypt and the Palestinian Territories, forged new partnerships and structures with multilateral organizations and released a groundbreaking report on entrepreneurship education. The Retrospective on Partnerships for Education Development report looks back on the GEI with a focus on lessons learned and the key success factors required for successful large-scale partnerships in education development....
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March 6, 2012
Accelerating the Adoption of mLearning: A Call for Collective and Collaborative Action
This report, written by the Forum’s Global Agenda
Council on ICT, examines the opportunities and impact Mobile Learning can have
as a means for positive socio-economic growth. The report notes that no
socio-economic factor is a better indicator of a nation’s economic success than
its investment in education and that mLearning offers fascinating opportunities
to systemically redefine the way that individuals and communities can
contribute to society.
Mobile
Learning serves as a new way of interconnecting everything and everyone --
teachers, tutors, students, study groups, social...
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February 28, 2012
Reaching the 143 million children left out of schools
We are wrapping up our annual meeting at Davos. I find my time here energizing – a lot of leaders with a passion for improving the world. That includes our Information Communications Technology Global Agenda Council.On Thursday I chaired a session with the Council. We focused on the potential of mobile education. The potential to turn mobile phones into teachers, classes and libraries. The potential to extend basic education to the 143 million children not enrolled in school. The potential to accelerate access to vocational training and higher education.With almost 6 billion mobile devices in...
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January 28, 2012
We need to put education on the global agenda
On arrival at Davos I wrote about how appropriate the “transformation and new models” theme of this year’s World Economic Forum is for framing what needs to happen in education. What I’m realizing a few days into the Forum however is that the topic of education really isn’t on the agenda at all!We’ve addressed everything but — the threats to our economic strength, our environment, our public safety, our health. We’ve addressed youth unemployment and the need for international cooperation and collaboration. But we just aren’t focusing on education or on the need to address the enormous...
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January 27, 2012
Transformation in Education
I am so excited to be part of a collective discussion at Davos about the need for Transformation and New Models, as all my experience over the last two decades has reinforced that this is what we need in education.If we are going to stand a chance at achieving the sustainable, inclusive, growing societies we seek, we will have to address the fact that in countries all over the world, at every stage of development, millions and millions of marginalized children are not attaining anywhere near the kind of educational outcomes necessary to participate productively in today’s economy. This is...
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January 24, 2012
Davos 2012: Decoding the data deluge
As a global society, we face a host of major challenges – whether it’s dealing with climate change, seeking new sources of energy and security, curing cancer or lifting billions of our fellow humans out of poverty. There are thousands of people engaged in solving these problems, in scores of laboratories and research centers around the globe. They are generating large amount of data about the issues at hand; yet we find ourselves at a juncture where we have so much data that it’s created a bottleneck. We’re faced with a classic needle in a haystack problem – finding the data that are most...
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January 24, 2012
Global Entrepreneurship and Successful Growth Strategies of Early-Stage Companies - Chinese
According to the Global Entrepreneurship and Successful Growth Strategies of Early-Stage Companies report, released by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Stanford University and Endeavor Global, the top 1% of companies from among 380,000 companies reviewed across 10 countries contribute 44% of total revenue and 40% of total jobs while the top 5% contribute 72% of total revenue and 67% of total jobs.
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September 6, 2011
Final Report on the Entrepreneurship Education Workstream, Summer 2011
The purpose of this global report is to tie together the work conducted over the past several years, in particular the common themes arising from the three roundtables, and to highlight the key points and recommendations for policy-makers. The report also summarizes the follow-on initiatives from the three roundtables, identifying links between the three and opportunities to connect them on a global basis. Finally, the report outlines some potential directions for the initiative – independent, but potentially linked under the umbrella and neutral platform of the Forum.
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July 25, 2011
Global Education Initiative LATAM Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education 2011
On 26 April 2011, on the occasion of the World Economic Forum on Latin America in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Steering Board of the World Economic Forum’s Global Education Initiative, the Latin America Advisory Group and other leaders from business, government, academia and civil society gathered for a private high-level roundtable meeting on entrepreneurship education. The roundtable outcomes included a series of recommended actions and the Manifesto for Entrepreneurship Education in Latin America.
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July 8, 2011
Global Entrepreneurship
After avoiding the collapse of the global financial and economic system, governments around the world are now focused on building a foundation for future growth. In addition to safeguarding the economic recovery, the world is facing a number of transformative challenges, such as an increasing scarcity of natural resources, significant demographic shifts, and the environmental and social implications of climate change.In dealing with these challenges, governments have taken an increasingly strong interest in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are recognized as important drivers of economic and...
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April 15, 2011
The Global Education Initiative (GEI) 2010 Year Review and Outlook
Since 2003, the Global Education Initiative (GEI) has been engaging leaders from business, government, academia, international organizations, civil society and non-governmental organizations to effect positive, sustainable and scalable changes in education at global and regional levels with a focus on innovation, quality and relevance. The GEI’s open, multistakeholder approach to education advancement has proven to be a resilient and creative backdrop for the multiple workstreams that constitute the initiative as it moves into its eighth year of existence. Ranging from country initiatives in...
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March 10, 2011
Global Education Initiative European Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education 2010
This report provides a summary of the discussions and outcomes from the European Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education organized by the World Economic Forum’s Global Education Initiative (GEI) in Brussels, Belgium on 11-12 May 2010. It includes the Manifesto for Unlocking Human Potential in Europe, which was one of the main outcomes of the roundtable, along with a series of recommended actions.
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March 10, 2011
Global Education Initiative European Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education Manifesto 2010
On 11-12 May 2010, on the occasion of the World Economic Forum on Europe, the steering board of the World Economic Forum’s Global Education Initiative, the European Advisory Group and other leaders from business, government, academia and civil society gathered in Brussels for a private, high-level roundtable meeting on entrepreneurship education. The discussions led to the creation of this manifesto, which is built around seven pillars.
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March 10, 2011
The Global Education Initiative (GEI) Model of Effective Partnership Initiatives for Education 2010
This report presents and describes the Global Education Initiative (GEI) model of effective partnership initiatives for education as it is currently being implemented in Jordan, Rajasthan, India and Egypt and summarizes the many lessons learned in the process of implementing initiatives across these three countries. The report acknowledges and applauds the significant progress that has been and continues to be made in each of the three initiatives, but the emphasis is on what needs to be done to continue to sustain and scale up these important initiatives. The report is intended to support...
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March 10, 2011
Educating the Next Wave of Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship has never been more important than it is today in this time of financial crisis. At the same time, society faces massive global challenges that extend well beyond the economy. Innovation and entrepreneurship provide a way forward for solving the global challenges of the 21st century, building sustainable development, creating jobs, generating renewed economic growth and advancing human welfare.When we speak about entrepreneurship, we are defining it in the broadest terms and in all forms – entrepreneurial people in large companies, in the public sector, in academia and...
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March 10, 2011
Global Education Initiative Annual Report 2010
Since 2003, the Global Education Initiative (GEI) has been engaging leaders from business, government, academia, international organizations, civil society and non-governmental organizations to effect positive, sustainable and scalable changes in education at global and regional levels with a focus on innovation, quality and relevance. The GEI’s open, multistakeholder approach to education advancement has proven to be a resilient and creative backdrop for the multiple workstreams that constitute the initiative as it moves into its eighth year of existence.Ranging from country...
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March 10, 2011
Global Education Initiative MENA Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education 2010
On 24 October 2010, on the occasion of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa in Marrakech, Morocco, the Steering Board of the World Economic Forum’s Global Education Initiative, the MENA Advisory Group and other leaders from business, government, academia, international organizations and civil society gathered for a private high-level roundtable meeting on entrepreneurship education. The roundtable outcomes included a series of recommendations and the Manifesto for Creating Jobs and Economic Growth in MENA through Entrepreneurship and 21st Century Skills.This...
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March 7, 2011
MENA Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education
On 24 October 2010, on occasion of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in Marrakech, Morocco, the Steering Board of the World Economic Forum’s Global Education Initiative, the MENA Action Group and other leaders from business,government, academia and civil society gathered for a private high-level roundtable on entrepreneurship education. The gap between skills and jobs is widening further in the MENA region and many countries lag behind other countries around the world in terms of competitiveness. The region must invest in developing entrepreneurial and...
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November 23, 2010
World Economic Forum on Latin America 2008
Leaders from over 40 countries evaluated the trends and changes in the global economy, in the political arena, in trade relations between Asia and Latin America as well as developments affecting investment to stimulate regional growth and the search for innovation in business and social affairs.
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November 10, 2010
Stimulating economic growth
There is widespread agreement that the international community needs to undertake a complementary set of adjustments in national policies supported by improvements in international cooperation to rebalance the world economy and make it more inclusive and sustainable. There are numerous key points to bear in mind.Viewed over a half-century, the global economy is in better shape than the crisis might indicate. Mankind is better off than it has ever been and technology promises to make things even better. Whatever choices are made to improve global governance, care must be taken not to...
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November 3, 2010
Corporate Gender Gap
The World Economic Forum’s Corporate Gender Gap Report 2010 is based on a survey of 600 of the heads of Human Resources at the world’s largest employers. The survey contained over 25 questions and assessed companies on representation of women within their establishments and the use of gender-equality practices such as measurement and target-setting, work-life balance policies and mentorship and training. The survey also asked respondents to identify the biggest barriers to women’s leadership and their opinion on the probable effects of the economic downturn on women’s employment in their...
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November 1, 2010
Global Gender Gap
The Global Gender Gap Report 2012 benchmarks national gender gaps of 135 countries on economic, political, education- and health-based criteria. The Global Gender Gap Index was developed in 2006, partially to address the need for a consistent and comprehensive measure of gender equality that can track a country’s progress over time. The index points to potential role models by revealing those countries that – within their region or income group – are leaders in dividing resources more equitably between women and men than other countries, regardless of the overall level of resources available....
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October 19, 2010
Global Redesign Initiative
The World Economic Forum was founded on the idea of bringing business together with its stakeholders in the belief that common challenges could only be solved together.In the 40 years of the Forum’s history, those challenges – like the Forum itself – have become global.In the aftermath of the economic crisis it’s clear that a return to “business as usual” is not enough.Increased global cooperation is vital for economic recovery and renewal, and in removing barriers the Forum to live up to its commitment to “improve the state of the world”. The only way issues will be positively addressed and...
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October 19, 2010
Creating World-Class Education in India
With nearly two-thirds of its population under the age of 35, India has the world's largest pool of young people. However, only 11% of those aged 17-23 receive higher education.How will the recent increase in the national budget for higher education transform India into a world-class educational hub and ensure access for all its youth?The recommended actions from this session will be discussed in the Closing Plenary session.Key Points• Reform of the Indian education system is urgently needed• Education in India should be accessible, affordable and accountable• Public-private ...
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November 9, 2009
Educating the Next Wave of Entrepreneurs
Educating the Next Wave of Entrepreneurs• Craig R. Barrett • Ángel Cabrera • John T. Chambers • Luisa Dias Diogo • H.R.H. Crown Prince Haakon of NorwayModerated by • Vikram K. Akula Friday 30 JanuaryCan entrepreneurship be taught? Yes, agreed panellists from academia, technology and government – not only can it be taught, but it must be taught as part of a global recovery from the economic downturn. The harder question is how, both from an educational perspective and a policy standpoint. Key points related to curricular development• Basic business literacy is the most ...
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January 30, 2009
