Digital technology has potential to rebalance world education resources

Digital technology is playing an increasingly important role in education and it has the potential to help rebalance world education resources towards a more sustainable and inclusive future, a senior executive of Huawei has said.

Speaking at the Digital Talent Summit as part of the UNESCO World Higher Education Conference recently, director, president of the Global Procurement Qualification Vincent Peng called for universities, governments and the private sector to work together.

“We should leverage digital technology to build a more collaborative, open, and vibrant education system,” he said at the gathering of more than 80 experts from government, academia, industry, and UNESCO.

UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education Stefania Giannini said technology is playing an increasingly important role in innovation and education. “We now have to go the extra mile, to bridge the global digital divide that left many behind and to integrate ICT-based solutions into higher education systems or programmes. This is key for more than just graduate employability. Digital technology can also contribute to more open, flexible, and connected higher education ecosystems,” she said.

The education sector is changing rapidly as technologies like big data, cloud, augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence rapidly make hybrid learning more accessible for all. A new whitepaper on education in Spain, released by Huawei and Ernst & Young at the event, indicated that only 13 per cent of companies use those cutting-edge technologies, and the companies that do use them do so primarily for strategic decision-making.

GREATER COLLABORATION

Marc García Tamayo, senior manager of EY, said, “There is an unprecedented opportunity to encourage greater collaboration between the government and companies, so that the government can act as a bridge and encourage greater communication with schools in the development of new skills.”

Some students from the Seeds for the Future programme, run by Huawei, also joined the event. Huawei, a leading global digital infrastructure provider, has launched a number of long-term initiatives aimed at bridging the digital divide and developing talent ecosystem, such as Huawei ICT Academy, the Seeds for the Future programme and the Global ICT Contest.

Peng said Huawei has partnered almost 2,000 universities around the world to build Huawei ICT Academies, with a target of training more than 1 million ICT professionals and experts by 2024. In Jamaica, Huawei Jamaica is working with the University of Technology and the University of the West Indies to establish an ICT Academy.

“We hope to improve digital literacy of all through these efforts, supporting sustainable growth of the society and industries,” Peng said.

Huawei launched its Seeds for the Future talent development program in 2008, and it has provided thousands of scholarships to support technology competitions, and digital skills training. In 2021, Huawei launched the Seeds for the Future Program 2.0, an updated version with many Jamaicans participating in this cultural exchange over the years.

The Summit also had a number of leading stakeholders present, such as Markus González Beilfuss, undersecretary for Universities of the Government of Spain; Ivica Šušak, State Secretary, Ministry of Science and Education of Republic of Croatia; Qin Changwei, Secretary-General, National Commission of the People’s Republic of China for UNESCO; and Li Ming, Director of UNESCO-ICHEI.