Any change in the skills mechanism must first come from the top. It is important to find mechanisms to develop the capability of leaders of education establishments in a way that challenges and enables them to deliver high quality skills that students and workers can utilise for life. Policy makers can support teachers to ameliorate skills delivery and become a force for long-term sustainable change, in addition to developing tomorrow’s skills sector leaders to ensure sound succession planning. In a diverse world, how can ASEAN nations create modern champions for life-enabling skills learning? Improving leadership and governance of education establishments is key to driving a modern, future facing skills architecture. Across ASEAN regions, there are commonalities in the challenge of providing high quality teachers with the needed to drive innovative skills delivery.
A great deal of growth is expected to come from the tertiary sector, creating partnerships with national and transnational dimensions, meaning that ‘governance’ will become increasingly important. A key question is to define what is meant by governance. Often the term is used interchangeably with management processes, which then creates gaps. In the UK, governance of skills education has developed along with legislation to enhance governance of skills education.
Most people will be familiar with corporate governance. Education governance encompasses a set of policies, procedures and financing which may come from a variety of structures. Education governance is connected to corporate governance, but some expressed that they should enable decisions to be made independently of political or economic decisions.
There is clear evidence that education can have major impact in delivering Net Zero visions for the future. To do so, it appears there are three structures which need to be brought together:
- Funding agreements or settlements
- National frameworks
- Local community networks
Only through dialogue between all three will outcomes be delivered on skills, as all three are needed to produce long term change in attitude and behaviours, and each nation will have a different way of delivering this. In summary, governance systems which can hold to account and empower are critical to success. Driving through the UN SDGs as developed standards and key targets can also offer an effective framework for building a rigid skills mechanism.