Shaping the future of education

SHAPE Education launched last week with a 1-day event that brought together experts from around the world to ask: how is our society changing and what do we need education to deliver for that society?

Last week, the SHAPE conference hosted by Cambridge Assessment in partnership with the Cambridge Judge Business School, welcomed investors, policy makers, EdTech specialists, entrepreneurs, teachers and learners to debate what changes in society are going to have the biggest impact on education.

The first of a series of thought-provoking events heard from leaders across the education sector including Priya Lakhani OBE CEO of CENTURY Tech, Neill Gibb business consultant and Author of the “Participation Revolution” and Director of Assessment Research and Development at Cambridge Assessment, Tim Oats.

Neill Gibb commented: “Education, probably more than any other sector, is at the heart of the seismic changes that are transforming our society. Like all structural disruption the solutions are unlikely to come from within the incumbent organisations but through diverse and broad groups of stakeholders thinking, sharing and designing together. That’s why this event is so exciting.”

Through disruptive talks, workshops and group work, the event highlighted how education needs to adapt to social change so that it is fit for purpose and how advances in technology will impact on the future of education.

Jaideep Prabhu, Professor of Marketing at Cambridge Judge Business School, said: “This is a new area for both Cambridge Assessment and the Judge Business School, but one which we firmly believe can have lasting benefits for society.

“By encouraging discussion focused on real problems and how we can solve them, we aim to encourage the development of educational solutions that target the global population who are currently not well served by digital solutions.”

SHAPE Education plans to develop a rich programme of global events to accelerate the change needed in education as part of the initiative. The Cambridge Judge Business School will be running a Venture Creation Weekend in November to take forward and act on some of the ideas generated at last week’s conference.

Follow up SHAPE events are being planned in locations around the world, hosted by attendees from the event and other members of the growing community. To find out more visit: https://shape-education.org/