eLearning in the School System

Public-Private Partnerships Bring Added Value to the Classrooms

A recent European Training Foundation (ETF) initiative shows that effective public-private partnerships in North Africa and the Middle East can be key in fostering new technology-based learning solutions that address skills needs in the global market in general and the fast-expanding ICT industry in particular. In close cooperation with the European Learning Industry Group (ELIG), the ETF gathered valuable information on current ICT learning activities and approaches in the region based on interviews with private companies and school representatives.

About the ETF

The European Training Foundation is an agency of the European Union based in Turin, Italy. It was established by Council Regulation No. 1360 in 1990, recast No. 1339 in 2008, to contribute to the development of the education and training systems of the EU partner countries. It became operational in 1994 with the appointment of its first director, Peter de Rooij, and the start of the activities in its premises of Villa Gualino. The ETF currently employs approximately 130 staff and has an annual budget of about € 18 million. Muriel Dunbar has been Director of the ETF since July 1st, 2004. ETF’s mission is to help transitioning and developing countries to harness the potential of their human capital through the reform of education, training and labour market systems in the context of the European Union's external relations policy.

About ELIG
The European Learning Industry Group (www.elig.org) is an open industry group which explores, researches and promotes “innovation in learning” throughout the European Union. It aims to offer thought leadership in this field, a communication channel to the learning market and a network within which its members collaborate rather than compete. ELIG’s membership encompasses those operating in the areas of technology infrastructure, media, learning content, publishing, learning platforms, software, learning services providers and research, and the membership base involves a wide variety of associations and user organisations.

The ETF initiative clearly indicates that public-private partnerships should be promoted as a cooperation model through awareness-raising and capacity-building programmes and that future ICT-learning solutions need better to address the overall learning environment, including cultural characteristics and languages. The interviews underlined that public-private / school-business partnerships must be built on shared values, goals and needs. They must respect and reflect the cultures of both the education and business partners, and support the core mission of the school. The principles for partnerships should be guided by a written collaborative agreement on mutually beneficial goals, an action plan for implementation and measurement of progress.

Both parties see the logic for school-business partnerships as compelling. Part ownership allows education projects to remain in the public sector to safeguard social and economic agendas while tapping private resources and expertise. The private sector gains valuable feedback on the projects and the companies it runs. It is a win-win situation, when such partnerships work. The results of the ETF initiative are based on the outcomes of interviews with member companies of ELIG and representatives of the governments of Jordan and Morocco.

Major findings:

• New Ways in Education and Training
  Economies in the Middle East and North Africa are traditionally based on natural resources, state-owned enterprises and small family businesses working in arts and crafts and other types of manual labour. Increasing trade with the European Union and market liberalisation put higher demands on product quality. As some natural resources are running out and traditional industries cannot provide sufficient employment, the need for new modes of training and education increases.
• A Basis to Start From
  New technologies can help cost-effectively to improve quality and access to education and training. In this regard, Morocco, Jordan and Egypt are at an advanced stage of developing new learning models with ICT. However, overall the e-readiness of the region is low and individual countries face considerable challenges in becoming true knowledge economies. People face infrastructure and connectivity problems, have limited access to computers and lack sufficient pedagogical models.
• The Potential of Public-Private Partnerships
  Working with IT companies that provide services and products for the education and training sector can help to alleviate these problems. There is a generally perceived mutual economic benefit for all parties involved, with immediate investment pressure on scarce government resources traded against a future return on investment for the companies involved. Private sector companies, for example, can offer globally recognised certificates, which are in increasing demand in the countries in the region because they tend to increase employment and further education.
• Main Challenges
  • The countries in the region have little tradition of cooperation between education and the private sector.
  • Learning materials and training are currently offered off-the-shelf. A majority of these are in English, and while some are in French, only in exceptional cases are they in Arabic. Most initiatives offered are still at a pilot level and have yet to reach the wider education and training system.
  • Solutions offered tend to focus on the teacher while they should address a broader audience.
• Preparation is Key
  • Lessons from the European Union and elsewhere in the world have taught that a critical mass cannot be reached if ICT is introduced as an add-on and not integrated into the entire learning process, including curricula, learning management and assessment procedures.
  •  In the entire process of integrating e-learning solutions into education reforms, capacity-building across the board is crucial.
  • Models for public-private partnerships must be developed that are both viable and relevant to the local education and training environment. Experiences from Jordan and Egypt suggest that such models may be based on a memorandum of understanding with shared roles and responsibilities for both public and private partners.

May 6, 2009

Newsportal: eLearning in the School System