Our economy will not prosper without educational innovation

Wednesday 23 December 2020

Our economy will not prosper without educational innovation

Wednesday 23 December 2020

In a new economy, how islanders are educated and what the curriculum will involve is crucial - whether it may include coding, economics or bringing STEM and the arts together.

Last week, a group of islanders called the Economic Council published a document called 'New Perspectives' setting out five themes which they believe should help form a long-term vision for our economy. Finishing today, Express is publishing more details on each one of those themes...

Developing a talent pipeline

Unless Jersey innovates and aspires to the highest levels in education and skills development across our entire population, our economy will not prosper.

A world-class education system is fundamentally crucial to the future prosperity of our community and building back better. The island’s primary economic resource is the intellect and creativity of its people, which over the last 60 years has been so successful in establishing Jersey as a word class financial centre, and innovating our traditional industries of agriculture (including aquaculture) and hospitality.

But we need to ensure that we develop a talent pipeline that supports our future economic strategy.

Pictured: "A world-class education system is fundamentally crucial to the future prosperity of our community and building back better."

Education underpins each of the four strategic drivers already outlined by the Economic Council, with the Council focusing its ambition for ‘education and skills’ around innovation and creativity.

It is essential that (i) the island educates children and young people for the working world they will enter, one that aligns with our economic strategy; and (ii) beyond primary and secondary education, the Island must adopt and embrace a culture of lifelong learning, anchored by a further/higher education system that focusses on skills necessary to empower our workforce to thrive in the new economy.

This will be how the island develops and maintains a strong talent pipeline, encouraging entrepreneurs and enterprises to build and grow businesses in the island, and in turn driving our future economic success.

The Economic Council considered that:

It has become clear through the Covid-19 pandemic that the island’s geographic position (i.e. locationally remote from the UK and other international learning institutions) is no longer a barrier to ensuring access to the best and most relevant education and skills training; hybrid virtual and in-person learning is now an accepted practice. Amongst other things this allows the island to partner with leading universities and educational institutions in the UK and internationally.
There is a strategic need to link Jersey’s educational curriculum with its future economic strategy rather than just aligning to the UK education system. We also need to ensure that the way we educate our children is geared to the world of the future and that we now live and work in - recognising that this has changed more than our education system. As referenced elsewhere, we are living in a fast-paced, technology-enabled world where the proliferation of new technologies and in particular Data-AI will increasingly dominate every aspect of our lives and the employment opportunities that will exist for our future workforce. Success in the New Economy will require a population that understands code as well as it understands maths and English, where creative subjects such as art and music are brought together with STEM to help inspire a new generation to be innovative as well as problem solvers.
Jersey will need to have a bold ambition, think innovatively and set its own education agenda that will ensure that our children have the best opportunity to prosper here or elsewhere in the future. Jersey should consider what is required both in the core curriculum and extra-curricular activities that will create the capabilities and skills that the island needs, as technology rapidly impacts the workplace and the speed of change in Jersey.
The pace of change in the world as a result of The Fourth Industrial Revolution (also known as Industry 4.0) will only increase, making a life-long learning environment essential to ensuring our island’s ability to develop and maintain relevant skills in the Island, in turn ensuring that every member of our workforce has an opportunity to be an economically productive member of our community whilst enjoying a long and rewarding career.
By creating an education curriculum that properly equips our children to prosper in the new economy, and establishing a culture of lifelong learning underpinned by a further education and skills training system or ecosystem that is world renowned, we can attract entrepreneurs and workforce talent to the Island:
The entrepreneurs will be attracted to build businesses here given the island’s political autonomy and stability, its high quality of life, resilient infrastructure, access to a varied and well-educated talent pool as well as a world-renowned business and professional services ecosystem to support locally-based enterprise; and
The globally mobile talent is attracted to a jurisdiction where they are able to continue to develop themselves, see innovative businesses locating, feel supported, inspired and able to be entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial within any of the public, private and third sectors;

in both cases, where the concept of ‘fail fast’ is embraced, understood politically, and no longer translated by the local media into negative front-page headlines that risks suffocating innovation or, worse still, driving it away.

Pictured: "Creative subjects such as art and music are brought together with STEM to help inspire a new generation to be innovative as well as problem solvers."

We need higher level skills

The pace of change referred to was reinforced in a recent report published in July 2020 by PwC Channel Islands entitled ‘Up-skilling the Channel Islands’ workforce for a digital world’, within which it was noted that almost 17,000 jobs in Jersey were at risk of loss by 2035 due to automation, with jobs in our financial services sector being at greatest risk.

Jersey will have to reinvent itself again and having the resources to retrain our workforce is a vital investment to successfully navigate that change. In the foreword to the PwC report, Nick Vermeulen, Innovation and Technology Partner says:

“If governments, businesses and educators don’t take decisive action now, the jobs that are furloughed or lost in the downturn may never come back. In turn, posts at risk of automation in 5-10 years’ time could disappear much sooner as restructuring and cost-saving accelerate in the wake of the pandemic.

“Yet this is also a once in a generation opportunity. With right skills, agility and readiness to embrace change, the Channel Islands can create thousands of new jobs to make up for the ones that will be lost. We can attract new businesses with new ways of working, improve the quality and value of the work we do, make it more fulfilling and ultimately bolster the long-term competitiveness and prosperity of our islands.”

Pictured: "It was noted that almost 17,000 jobs in Jersey were at risk of loss by 2035 due to automation, with jobs in our financial services sector being at greatest risk."

The link between education and our economic prosperity is not a new concept, but perhaps there has not been a burning platform to drive the necessary strategic change – before now.

In introducing the Jersey Skills Strategy 2017-2022, it was noted by Government that: “Jersey’s prosperity ultimately depends on two things: firstly, the number of people employed and secondly, the value of what those workers produce. Therefore, raising productivity – the average value that each worker produces – is critical to securing prosperity for current and future generations of islanders. There is a growing body of research demonstrating the link between investment in skills and positive outcomes for the economy – particularly through rising productivity – and benefits for individuals and organisations.”

The Skills Strategy 2017-2022 report, which was authored by the University of Exeter’s Marchmont Employment & Skills Observatory and published in October 2017, says: “At present, the shift to the provision of higher-level skills is not happening fast enough and without change, there will be a shortfall of local people with the higher level skills that employers need now and in the future. At the same time, there is a shortfall in applicants for work in key sectors in the economy such as hospitality, construction and social where motivation, communication skills, customer service skills and team working are key. Meeting these challenges means that we need to develop and promote pathways to higher skills that meet the needs of both employers and individuals in a variety of ways, from new higher education opportunities to new apprenticeship routes.
We also need to boost the attractiveness of our priority sectors to young people and promote workforce development and lifelong learning to ensure that skills keep up with the pace of change. The scale of the challenge means that it is essential that the Strategy and Plan are kept under regular review to manage performance and appraise their focus in response to new opportunities, funds and challenges as they arise.”

Pictured: The Skills Strategy Report from the University of Exeter said - "We also need to boost the attractiveness of our priority sectors to young people and promote workforce development and lifelong learning to ensure that skills keep up with the pace of change."

Whilst there is an excellent understanding of the issue of education and skills locally, and research has been done, the question is how to corral and adequately resource our Education Department, Skills Jersey, other Government departments, bodies and agencies, and to effectively partner the private and third sectors, to action this critical initiative – the issue having been amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic as articulated by PwC.

Our longer lives

As a further provocation to deal with this issue, longer lives will almost certainly mean longer working lives. In their book ‘The 100-Year Life’, Lynda Gratton and Andrew J Scott note that a child born in the West today has more than a 50% chance of living to the age of 105, which they contrast with a child born over a century ago when the chance of living that long was 1%. They argue that retirement ages of 80 will end up being common because retirement at 65 will simply be a financial impossibility.

They say: “It may be that over a 100-year life substantial knowledge acquisition will no longer take place in one shot, completed early in life. Given the degree of likely technological advances, it seems impossible to imagine that a specialism learnt early in a career will sustain someone through their long working life.”

“There is likely to be a rise in the importance of education that supports the creation of ideas and the value of being innovative and creative.”

Pictured: "Longer lives will almost certainly mean longer working lives."

Further evidence that support for the creative industries is a must have rather than a nice to have.

So, education in Jersey must support older people retraining whose jobs will otherwise disappear due to disruption from technology, competition or both, a fact supported by 75% of respondents to the 2019 Jersey Annual Social Survey.

As part of a cohesive strategy we need to invest in apprenticeships and in developing younger (and older) talent to ensure the island is self-sustaining and has a diverse workforce able to maintain and develop the local economy.

Where do we go from here?

Nothing in this essay is intended to criticise the efforts of those that work in education in Jersey; quite the contrary, the Economic Council gratefully acknowledges what is currently being achieved with the available resources.

We simply make the case that Jersey should have an ambition to have the best education in the world and work-up a viable plan to deliver on that ambition. The future prosperity of our community depends on it. Government now needs to devote the resources to establishing that ambition and a supporting theory of change. As citizens, parents and even grandparents we have the most important part to play in recognising the importance of life-long learning.

Pictured: "For example Highlands College, can be positioned to support innovation and the skills needed to exist and thrive in the new economy in a broader way."

Other strategic drivers that have been put forward by the Economic Council refer to education and ask whether and how some of our existing resources, for example Highlands College, can be positioned to support innovation and the skills needed to exist and thrive in the new economy in a broader way, linking-up with other arms-length organisations that themselves promote further education, skills and lifelong learning.

A commitment to lifelong learning also represents a genuine opportunity for a sustainable partnership between the public, private and third sectors and the creation of a unique learning ecosystem. In this regard, we acknowledge the activities of many private and third sector organisations who already form part of an ecosystem that promotes lifelong learning to both local and international students.

These include the Digital Jersey Academy, multiple providers of professional qualifications and professional development in the financial services sector, as well as third sector organisations such as the ‘Durrell Conservation Academy’, who – from Jersey – are world leaders in conservation capacity development and whose conservation academy has trained thousands of students at all points of their career and has a globally important purpose: to provide the skills and experience to prevent further endangered species from becoming extinct.

These are cited as examples to demonstrate an existing education and skills development capability in the Island that exists beyond the Government’s own education system and should be leveraged and expanded upon to deliver the stated Vision of Skills Jersey, “A confident, motivated and skilled society for Jersey”, and a Mission that, "Local people of all ages have the ability to choose and achieve positive career, life and learning goals, aligning with the needs of the Island, in collaboration with industry”. The Economic Council could not have summed-up the strategic ask any better.

Read the full report here.