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What will the future of university education be like? Learning through and beyond COVID-19, a new programme is helping prepare students for work and life.
T Tony Hall Director of Educational Design Research for Designing Futures, Office of the Dean of Students, NUI Galway
he COVID 19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to education, with the UN estimating that almost 1.5 billion learners have been affected adversely in terms of access to and continuity of their education. Universities such as NUI Galway have stepped up to meet the challenges presented by the pandemic and used innovation and creativity to find opportunities in the face of adversity. The imperative is to create a more inclusive education system, one that tackles big challenges facing society while giving young people the confidence and skills to engage with the complex and uncertain world of today, and tomorrow. Future jobs opportunities A new programme at NUIGalway, Designing Futures, aims to achieve just that. Designing Futures is the combined approach of University Staff and enterprise partners. At the same time it offers a more holistic education and develops the skills to innovate for the future. Tony Hall, Director of Educational
Design Research for Designing Futures, Office of the Dean of Students, NUI Galway, says: “It will give them the skills to realise their talents and succeed in life. “Designing Futures is about nurturing and supporting students to develop new skills and equip them with the abilities and competences to be ready for life and the workplace of the future.”
Students will be given personal skills training and learning in tools that will be of use to them throughout their lives. The programme has four core pillars: • A personalised student experience supported by success coaches to enable them to design their futures by maximising their university experience. Linked with and based on the Design Your Life approach of Stanford University. • The new human centred design studio - IdeasLab. It brings together our students and enterprise
One size does not fit all in the future of work The pandemic triggered a global experiment in the way we work. It is time to take the lessons learned from that experience and build more inclusive, sustainable and flexible workplaces.
W Claudia Carr People & Organisation Transformation Director, BearingPoint
ith so many different working model options to consider - centralised, hubs, remote, hybrid - the burning questions for many organisations remain: “What model works best?” and “How do we protect our organisation culture, support collaboration and innovate?” Finding the best model The truth is that there is no single optimal model. What works for one organisation may not work for another. Within organisations, what works for one team or one role, will not suit all. What is optimal today, may not be in the future. However, our experience shows there are a number of underlying principles which will help guide organisations as they consider the future of work.
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• Define your guiding star. Set a clear vision for what you want to achieve, aligned to your strategic goals and values. This includes defining guiding principles for ways of working which are understood across the organisation. • Empower teams to define the model that works best for them. Provide them with the necessary training, coaching and tooling. Trust that they understand their objectives and how best to structure working practices to achieve them. • Equip managers to lead. Communications, planning, capacity management, coaching and effective delegation are critical skills to support new working models. Managers need to be equipped with the skills to lead diverse teams.
partners – from some of the biggest and most innovative employers in Ireland – to develop learning experiences that are driven by design thinking, tech, curiosity, creativity and empathy. • A new suite of modules which breaks down the traditional silos of academic specialism, promoting innovative thinking and problemsolving among students across the university. • Modelled on the approach of Georgia Institute of Technology, multidisciplinary teams of staff and students are brought together to solve research challenges in culture, enterprise and society. Holistic approach to university education Hall concludes: “Students will be given personal skills training and learning in tools that will be of use to them throughout their lives, helping them to make the best career and life choices. “Our hope and our aim are the same - to better prepare young graduates for the complex world of today and tomorrow.”
• Create time for meaningful connection. Relationships and social connection are critical to organisation success. They are often a catalyst for innovation. Making time for these connections, whether in person or virtual, is more important now than ever. • Test and learn. Recognise that things will evolve. Seek regular feedback from a range of internal and external stakeholders on what is working well, and what could work better. Celebrate successes and take learnings from what did not go to plan. Maintain focus on the guiding star when testing a new hypothesis. • Review key skills and competencies. As workplaces evolve, so too will the skills and competencies required in the workforce. Organisation and individual resilience, technical, managing change and people skills will continue to grow in importance. The seeds of the future of work were planted long before the pandemic, but it took a crisis to demonstrate that alternative working models could be successfully adopted across industries. Technical tools alone will not deliver new ways of working, but with the right approach the future of work will deliver benefits for all.
Paid for by NUI Galway
For more information on the work of academics and researchers at NUI Galway visit impact. nuigalway.ie
Paid for by BearingPoint
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