How Educators can Innovate
Aside from specific aptitudes like coding and programming, I would recommend educators supporting the development of creative problem solving, and qualities like personal initiative, collaboration, persistence and resourcefulness.
The techniques from ‘service design’ are all about human insight, and understanding what the real problem is that needs to be solved. Once you know what that is, you would be able to solve it in the most appropriate way. Also I would advocate learning technical skills and mental agility that becomes uniquely valuable in other arenas.
The Digital Sector:
The sector is experiencing high growth, and it’s moving very fast. It’s now an appropriate time to be moving into it, with the advent of emerging technology, Cyber security, Cloud, Data Analytics and AI. Over the next 5 years, you can become an expert in something that today doesn’t even exist yet.
Innovate to Educate
About: I describe myself as an innovation consultant, I work on problems that involve new technology interacting with people, often including some kind of market or business viewpoint. I sometimes get involved with hardware innovation and prototyping, then learning from how people interact with it.
Other projects are in the line of strategy consultancy, working with corporate clients on how technology will transform the way we interact in the next 5-10 years, and what they need to do about it. In all of this, I use a wide variety of skills I’ve accumulated over the past three decades, but primarily my job is about critical thinking, communication and creative problem solving.
Background: My undergrad degree was in chemical engineering. After University, I worked for a several years across a breadth of sectors; Oil & Gas, Manufacturing, Banking in Nigeria before relocating to the UK in 1998 with a career shift to Information Technology, Export Finance and then Consulting.
Digital Skills: For the kind of work I do, flexibility is key. I have a facility with a very wide range of tools and platforms, and I find it easy to adapt to change. It’s incredibly important in my work to be able to simplify complex ideas and present them clearly. This requires good communication and storytelling.
LBACADEMY SERVICES:
I support UK Business on innovation & strategy. Services provided to NatWest Bank, City Business Library, URICA Ltd, Enterprise Nation, Bright Ideas Trust, East Thames Ltd, Department for International Trade, Business Mentoring Meetup and many others since 2010
SKILLS: Business Growth, Coaching Start-ups, Business Strategy, Project Management, eCommerce, Export Finance, New Business Development, Leadership Digital Transformation.
SECTORS: Creative & Media; Training & Education; Financial & Professional Services; Technology (Digital Services, Software).