A new look at education

CCBC Education Commission projects aim to create bridges between academia, the need for professional qualification and the companies’ demand for collaborators

By Estela Cangerana

That the Canadian educational model is recognized among the best in the world is not new to anyone. Just as it is not necessary to remember how much the country’s educational institutions are sought after annually by thousands of students in search for excellence. But, in addition to being one of the countries that most attract Brazilians abroad, Canada can offer its experience in a close relationship with the market, to increase interaction between academia and business. This equally important economic and social impact bias is inspiring a series of projects being developed by the CCBC Education Commission.

The idea is to take advantage of the Chamber’s privileged relationship with all the links in the chain to promote the match between students and/or professionals, schools that can provide adequate training for market needs and companies that need employees with these profiles.

We intend for the Committee to have a real economic impact, which is the essence of our activity as a Chamber. Precisely because of the CCBC’s activity profile, we relate and we can easily aggregate this whole ecosystem of educational organizations, students, alumni, and companies from different sectors”, explains the coordinator of the Education Committee and CCBC’s Vice President of Communication, Rafael Mangini. “We want to be the connection point between these agents”, he adds.

The work begins with the sharing of experiences and contacts between the project coordinators themselves. Alongside Mangini, who is Marketing Director of the Maple Bear Schools network in Latin America, are the founding partner of the Canada com Você exchange agency, Eduardo Flit, the president of Alumni Canada-Brazil, Jessica Sbroglia, and the trade commissioner of Education of the Consulate General of Canada in São Paulo, Fernanda Albano, among other members of the Committee.

Education Hub

They lead one of the ongoing initiatives that exemplify the group’s guideline, the Education Hub, a platform that will bring Canadian students, professionals in search of improvement and institutions together, to offer open and short courses, selected and structured according to the needs of market, available with special advantages and prices. The pilot project should be launched in the second half of this year.

The participation of companies that may benefit from the Hub’s qualified workforce is a constant that has been inspiring the entire design of the project. The proposal is to offer training on the platform that meet four axes: digital marketing, technology, languages and leadership (including in this item all the dynamics of emotional skills).

The themes were not chosen randomly. They are part of the results of a survey that the Committee carried out with national and international companies from different sectors. The study identified areas in which employers perceive the greatest knowledge gaps for the formation of their teams.

“It is important to highlight that the educational needs of today are very different from the time when the education system was conceived. In the past, training focused only on technical knowledge, but today the development of social, emotional and environmental skills is crucial”, says Mangini. “We still need to consider the rapid changes, driven by technological innovation, which change society’s scenarios on a daily basis. This creates training gaps that we need to fill”, he adds.

The search for offering an education that makes sense in the current context of society and enables a positive economic impact goes beyond offering general skills training. The plans are for joint work between the Education Committee and Committees such as, for example, the Foreign Trade and Diversity Committees, for the development of common projects, through the intersection between the areas.

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