career transition

ReShaping Education in 2020

Three ways the COVID-19 pandemic could reshape education.

  • The coronavirus pandemic has changed how millions around the globe are educated.
  • New solutions for education could bring much-needed innovation.
  • Given the digital divide, new shifts in education approaches could widen equality gaps.

In a matter of weeks, coronavirus (COVID-19) has changed how students are educated around the world. Those changes give us a glimpse at how education could change for the better – and the worse – in the long term.

With the coronavirus spreading rapidly across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States, countries have taken swift and decisive actions to mitigate the development of a full-blown pandemic. In the past two weeks, there have been multiple announcements suspending attendance at schools and universities. As of March 13, the OECD estimated that over 421 million children are affected due to school closures announced or implemented in 39 countries. Also, another 22 states have announced partial “localized” closures.

These risk-control decisions have led millions of students into temporary ‘home-schooling’ situations, especially in some of the most heavily impacted countries, like China, South Korea, Italy, and Iran. These changes have certainly caused a degree of inconvenience, but they have also prompted new examples of educational innovation. Although it is too early to judge how reactions to COVID-19 will affect education systems around the world, signs are suggesting that it could have a lasting impact on the trajectory of learning innovation and digitization. 

Below, we follow three trends that could hint at future transformations:

1. Education – nudged and pushed to change – could lead to surprising innovations

The slow pace of change in academic institutions globally is lamentable, with centuries-old, lecture-based approaches to teaching, entrenched institutional biases, and old classrooms. However, COVID-19 has become a catalyst for educational institutions worldwide to search for innovative solutions in a relatively short period.

To help slow the virus’ spread, students in Hong Kong started to learning at home, in February, via interactive apps. In China, 120 million Chinese got access to learning material through live television broadcasts.

Other more straightforward – yet no less creative – solutions have been implemented around the globe. In one Nigerian school, standard asynchronous online learning tools (such as reading material via Google Classroom), were augmented with synchronous face-to-face video instruction, to help preempt school closures.

Similarly, students at one school in Lebanon began leveraging online learning, even for subjects such as physical education. Students shot and sent over their videos of athletic training and sports to their teachers as “homework,” pushing students to learn new digital skills. One student’s parent remarked, “while the sports exercise took a few minutes, my son spent three hours shooting, editing, and sending the video in the right format to his teacher.”

With 5G technology becoming more prevalent in countries such as China, U.S., and Japan, we will see learners and solution providers genuinely embracing the ‘learning anywhere, anytime’ concept of digital education in a range of formats. Traditional in-person classroom learning will be complemented with new learning modalities – from live broadcasts to ‘educational influencers’ to virtual reality experiences. Education could become a habit that integrates into daily routines – an authentic lifestyle.

2. Public-private educational partnerships could grow in importance

In just the past few weeks, we have seen learning consortiums and coalitions taking shape, with diverse stakeholders – including governments, publishers, education professionals, technology providers, and telecom network operators – coming together to utilize digital platforms as a temporary solution to the crisis. In emerging countries where the government has predominantly provided education, this could become a prevalent and consequential trend to future learning.

In China, the Ministry of Education has assembled a group of diverse constituents to develop a new cloud-based, online learning and broadcasting platform as well as to upgrade a suite of education infrastructure, led by the Education Ministry and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Similarly, the Hong Kong-based readtogether.hk forum (China Daily video here) is a consortium of over 60 educational organizations, publishers, media, and entertainment industry professionals, providing more than 900 educational assets, including videos, book chapters, assessment tools, and counseling services for free. The consortium intends to continue using and maintaining the platform even after COVID-19 is contained.

Through examples like these, it is evident that educational innovation is receiving attention beyond the typical government-funded or non-profit-backed social project. In the past decade, we have already seen far greater interest and investment coming from the private sector in education solutions and innovation. From Microsoft and Google in the U.S. to Samsung in Korea to Tencent, Ping An, and Alibaba in China, corporations are awakening to the strategic imperative of an educated populace. While most initiatives to date have been limited in scope, and relatively isolated, the pandemic could pave the way for much larger-scale, cross-industry coalitions formed around a common educational goal.

3. The digital divide could widen

Most schools in affected areas are finding stop-gap solutions to continue teaching, but the quality of learning is heavily dependent on the level and quality of digital access. After all, only around 60% of the globe’s population is online. While virtual classes on personal tablets may be the norm in Hong Kong, for example, many students in less developed economies rely on lessons and assignments sent via WhatsApp or email.

Moreover, the less affluent and digitally savvy individual families are, the further their students are left behind. When classes transition online, these children lose out because of the cost of digital devices and data plans.

Unless access costs decrease and quality of access increase in all countries, the gap in education quality, and thus socioeconomic equality, will be further exacerbated. The digital divide could become more extreme if educational accessibility is dictated by access to the latest technologies.

The rapid spread of COVID-19 has demonstrated the importance of building resilience to face various threats, from pandemic disease to extremist violence to climate insecurity, and even, yes, rapid technological change. The pandemic is also an opportunity to remind ourselves of the skills students need in this unpredictable world, such as informed decision making, creative problem solving, and perhaps above all, adaptability. Resilience must be built into our educational system to ensure those skills remain a priority for all students.

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5 Things to Know Before Changing Careers

Have you been thinking of a new career? There is a lot to consider when making a big decision such as changing careers because more than one area of your life will be affected. Changing profession can be daunting and sometimes we don’t always get the support we need from those in our profession.  

A career change can be great move to take since it can lead to finding or working in the profession of your choice or in a business that aligns more with your core values and what you seek in a job. But what do you need to know before changing your careers?

Here are five things you should know before making a career change. We’ve come up with five things, or tips, you should know before making a move to a new profession. Research is critical in making this big step.

  1. Invest time. Investing time on yourself and research is crucial to the process of making the change. What do we mean? Take the time to know what you want professionally, what your core values are, what kind of environment you would like to work in, your strengths, and skills you have. This is the first initial step you want to take to in gathering as much information as you can on yourself and understanding the assets you can bring to your new career and industry.
  2. You don’t have to know so much yet. Going into a new profession means, you may not know everything right away, and that’s okay. However, you do have to have some knowledge of the industry such as the obstacles the industry faces and the company, how you can offer solutions from previous experience, skills, and knowledge you may have. There will be moments when you may not know something, however, having an eagerness to learn and having a humble attitude is important in transitioning careers.
  3. There will be disappointments. You’re everyday tasks, and responsibilities will change and with them, the application of skills and knowledge you have. There will be challenges and obstacles you’ll need to navigate and ask yourself how you will overcome them and be willing to learn. Keeping realistic expectations of the job is important to have when entering a new profession.
  4. Create an action plan. A plan that is detailed and clear for you to outline into achievable steps and what has to be done first. An action plan you will be able to execute and carry out over the time you are transitioning to a new career.
  5. Overhaul your resume. This is a given, but we don’t mean tweaking your resume just on a few sections. You’ll have to rebuild your resume to fit into the industry you want to work in, and that demonstrates your skills and knowledge are transferable. Take the time to know what the industry is looking for in a candidate and how you better display your skills and experience in that new industry.

Changing careers is a more common now than it was before years ago. There are more opportunities in the workforce that allows us to grow professionally and transition into a career we can see ourselves working in for years. Before making a change, we have to ensure it is the right move and what it is needed to make that move possible.

Research is a critical component of understanding and gaining more knowledge of what the new industry is about and what you as an individual need to make a career change. What steps are you taking to make the transition to a new career?

 

Can You Become a Hygienist if You Are a Dental Assistant?

Can you be more than a dental assistant, say a dental hygienist? Yes! As a dental assistant, you have many options for professional growth and to expand in your career. Being an assistant to a dentist is a great start to see whether going into the dental field is right for you or not.

If you’re a dental assistant now and want to make the transition to becoming a dental hygienist, you are one step ahead! Being a dental assistant now gives you the experience of being in a dental environment where you are continually being exposed to challenges and learning experiences a textbook can’t teach, not to mention the observations you make working alongside the dentist. The transition is smooth since you already obtain knowledge from your work environment other students may lack and have acquired skillsets necessary to make you a successful hygienist.

Being a dental hygienist means you’re moving towards a more dental field than a dental assistant might. Your responsibilities and tasks will become more independent and advance as you engage one-on-one with patients and focus in the dental area. There is more hands-on with cleaning a patient’s teeth if it’s something you are looking forward to doing. The perks of being a dental hygienist are an increase in pay and a more flexible schedule if that’s what you are in search for, a balance between your work and life.

So, what are the requirements of becoming a dental hygienist? You will need to earn an AA degree in dental hygiene and complete licensing examinations specific to the state you inhabit. Some programs for dental hygiene require 2 to 4 years of schooling depending on where you decide to go. What are you waiting for to further advance your career? You have the knowledge and have established an understanding of what it’s expected within a dental environment, take the leap and become a dental hygienist today!