Applied Education Futures and the Shape of Things to Come

Skills development across industry and professional sectors is identified as one of the essential drivers of recovery and growth to address the fragility and volatility of post-COVID economies. The window of opportunity for the applied degree sector, to rethink, reset, and ride the skilling and reform agenda to help accelerate economic recovery, business transformation, enhance digital skilling and competences to enable sustainable transformation is in play. This chapter highlights the emergent smart education approaches, intelligent technologies, and opportunities that may be considered critical and transformational in future-shaping a more sustainable, value-added, applied degree sector. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

TEACHERS' DIGITAL COMPETENCES BEFORE AND DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF SECURITY AND DEFENCE HIGHER EDUCATION

COVID-19 hastened a trend that was already ongoing before the pandemic outbreak: the progressively increasing use of distance and online teaching and learning, alongside with lectures and classes. The potentialities of online teaching allowed a didactic continuity that would have been impossible otherwise, and this approach is likely to be maintained even after COVID-19 related restrictions end. From these remarks, it immediately follows that it is of great importance that teachers, students and other personnel, such as technicians and program managers, possess digital skills devoted to education. In the context of security and defence, areas with a strong international vocation, these skills are even more valuable. This research investigates the impact of COVID-19 on education in these contexts: the changes caused by the pandemic, the teachers’ perception about some aspects of their job, such as the way they relate with students, and their ability to perform the same commitments in a different scenario. The research has been conducted based on the analysis of an online anonymous questionnaire with more than 500 responses. Results suggested the importance of the development of a training devoted to improving teachers’ digital skills, since they live frontline in education, and they have been directly impacted by disruptive changes. This study is part of the European project Digital Competences for Improving Security and Defence Education - DIGICODE. Pursuing to the Digital Education Action Plan, the project aims at improving education quality in security and defence, by means of digital tools in didactics, and the development of teachers’ professional competences. © Proceedings of the International Conference on E-Learning 2022, EL 2022 - Part of the Multi Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems 2022, MCCSIS 2022. All rights reserved.

Teachers' perception of higher education in a transition scenario

Distance and online teaching and learning have become common forms during the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the change of pedagogical and didactical approaches from residential to virtual and online settings. Given that these novel forms of teaching and learning possess advantages beyond the needs of this contingent situation, it is reasonable to suppose that they will be used also after the end of the pandemic. In light of this, it is important for all the stakeholders to possess digital skills fine-tuned to education, in order to teach and learn at best, even more so in international contexts such as those regarding security and defence. This is in accordance with the more general setting of future skills, that considers personal development related to what the world is requiring. In this paper, we investigate changes from before to during the pandemic in the perception of teachers working in programs or courses concerning security and defence on several aspects, such as the relation with their students and the time required to carry out various tasks. Our investigation, conducted through the analysis of an online anonymous questionnaire, triggers the suggestion that teachers need a specific training in digital skills, since they experience difficulties in relating with students and in performing tasks without excessive time consumption. Our analysis took place in accordance with international partners from the European project DIGICODE, which aims at improving the security and defence education quality by using digital tools in the didactic activities and by developing teachers' digital competencies. © 2022 IEEE.

EVENT MANAGEMENT SKILLS IN THE POST-COVID-19 WORLD: INSIGHTS FROM CHINA, GERMANY, AND AUSTRALIA

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has caused the event industry and providers of tertiary event management courses to reflect on the nature of future events and the form they will take. With hybrid, virtual, and innovative events being foreseen for the coming years, skills taught in the relevant programs and courses also need to be reassessed and restructured. Using qualitative, semistructured interviews, this research explores the viewpoints on requisite future skills from three groups of event stakeholders—professionals, lecturers, and students—across three countries: China, Germany, and Australia. The results show agreement on what event management skills will be needed, among which technical and digital expertise, communication, innovation, and leadership are seen as the most important. Copyright © 2022 Cognizant, LLC.

Exploring the effects of learning abilities, technology and market changes on the need for future skills

Purpose: The study investigates the effects of learning abilities, market changes and technological development in the field of the need for future skills. Design/methodology/approach: This quantitative research is a descriptive study, as it describes the characteristics of variables. Non-probability sampling was applied. A survey was distributed online during May–July, 2021, using a cross-sectional timeframe, to managers (in three industries: FINTECH, FMCG and industrial/production field) who work with teams of Gen Z and Millennials. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS. Findings: There is a significant positive relationship between learning abilities and future skills development, there is a significant positive relationship between technology development and future skills development, and there is a significant positive relationship between market changes and future skills development. Research limitations/implications: Data were collected through online surveys, focusing on three industries. This study neglects the use of qualitative data in order to gain further explanations regarding the main factors influencing employees' future skills development in times of globalization, advanced technology, global crisis, and the need for sustainability, the model of qualification for future jobs seems dynamic and controversial. This study's empirical evidence illustrates that future skills need to be developed for employees in order to affect their methods with regard to performing their role in the company. Originality/value: New skills are necessarily emerging in the labor market. The maturity level of higher education institutions to promote these skills is questioned. Thus, this study develops empirical knowledge for educational institutions regarding the effects of learning abilities, market changes and technological development. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Components of Education 4.0 in 21st Century Skills Frameworks: Systematic Review

Responsive educational proposals to develop skills to meet the demands of Industry 4.0 have become imperative to guarantee inclusive, equitable, and quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, also reducing the negative impact of COVID‐19 and the major post‐pandemic social issues. This article analyzes which components of Education 4.0 have been considered in 21st century skills frameworks and identifies the teaching and learning methods and key stakeholders impacted. We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) with research questions to highlight studies that address 21st century frameworks worldwide, identifying which teaching–earning strategies contain 4.0 components, their learning dimensions, and the targeted stakeholders. The findings allowed us to identify opportunities to create or improve 21st century skills frameworks with the required Education 4.0 components to develop future skills. Our study revealed the absence of these frameworks for teachers and schools. Most are oriented toward students, developing competencies through the dimensions of character, meta‐learning, and linking active learning teaching strategies. This work presents studies incorporating innovative educational practices and the core Education 4.0 components. It concludes with a reflection on creating educational models to develop complex‐reasoning competencies and auto‐systemic thinking to support problem‐solving and address social needs. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.