Education is at a crossroads. Questions are being asked about the value of formal credentials while many of the most exciting innovations in our time are emerging from industry rather than as an outcome of a formal research project. The world has changed; what to do? We’ve used our work on the Shift Index to view the education sector from a different perspective, and we’d like to hear what you think of the result.

1. The Future for
the Education
Sector
v8
The Shift in
Education
Image: Francisco Osorio

2. Education is at a crossroads. Questions
are being asked about the value of
formal credentials while many of the
most exciting innovations in our time are
emerging from industry rather than as
an outcome of a formal research project.
The world has changed; what to do?
We’ve used our work on the Shift Index
to view the education sector from a
different perspective, and we’d like to
hear what you think of the result.
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3. We assume that the future is like today,
only more so
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Yesterday Today Tomorrow
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4. … but those assumptions will not hold if the
nature of the environment has changed
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The shift from
stocks to flows
The shift from
push to pull

5. The Shift Index1 showed us that how we
communicate and collaborate has
changed and that this has, in turn,
driven changes in business and society.
It also showed that Australia is better at
generating knowledge flows than
leveraging them to create value.
The education sector appears to be the
best tool to rectify this problem.
51. Peter Evans-Greenwood & Peter Williams (2014), Setting aside the burdens of the past, Deloitte Australia

6. Value used to rest on the stocks under
our control.
Digitisation has shifted our focus from
the centre of organisations to the edge;
from tending the operation of the boiler
room that powers an enterprise to
navigating the tempest surrounding it.
Today value relies on tapping into the
flows that weave through and around us.
How has digital technology changed the nature of
business and society?
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Stocks to Flows
This has changed the dynamics of many
industries and organisations.
Yesterday we used to push out
solutions, products and information to
meet predicted demand.
Today we work with trends, enabling
consumers to pull in solutions, products
and information as needed.
Push to Pull

7. Our current education sector is founded
on the creation of knowledge stocks and
then pushing these stocks into
individuals and organisations.
Our future education sector might be
founded on the curation of knowledge
flows, where knowledge and insight are
pulled in by individuals and
organisations as required.
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8. Relationships based on stocks of knowledge that
are pushed between participants
The old relationships …
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Industry
Educators
Student
Credentials
“We need someone
certified to apply a
known body of
knowledge to a known
problem”
Knowledge
“Provide me with the
body of knowledge that
I’ll need in my career.”
Research
“I have a specific
problem that requires a
general answer”

9. Relationships based on knowledge flows that
participants pull from as required
… might be replaced by new relationships
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Industry
Educators
Student
Capability
“We need someone who
has a demonstrable
ability to synthesise a
new solution to this novel
problem”
Skills
“Help me find/acquire
the skills I need to
develop further”
Optimisation
“I have a general problem
and I need to understand
the specifics”

10. We foresee three big shifts in education
The shift from a predictable environment to a less
predictable one moves our emphasis from reductive
analysis to constructive synthesis
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Analysis to
Synthesis
Learning is no longer restricted to the classroom, as
we cannot predict ahead of time what knowledge will
be required, nor can we afford to take time out of
formally acquire knowledge.
Out-of-Context to
In-Context
We used to hire someone as we could trust them to
apply a known body of knowledge, but today we need
to be able to trust them to solve a poorly defined and
novel problem
Credential to
Capability
The shift from stocks to flows and push to pull is
changing how we acquire and use knowledge

11. We need to teach the next generation not just
how to pull apart the problems confronting
them to understand each part, we also need
to help them understand how to pull
disparate parts together to create something
new, innovating when confronted by novel
situations.
• Learning built around deliverables and
outcomes
• Experience in diverse contexts
• The inverted classroom
Analysis to
Synthesis
Image source: Emil Johansson

12. Learning is something that happens
continually whenever an individual or
organisation realises that new skills or
knowledge is required to solve a problem.
Expertise is pulled to the context and
enabling the problem to be solved, with the
knowledge worker participating and learning
from the experience.
• Simulation Learning
• Service Learning
• Industry-Based Learning
Out-of-Context to
In-Context
Image source: Lars Plougmann

13. To build trust in what an individual is capable
of, rather than their educational achievement,
we need to understand:
• The type problems the individual is
interested in solving
• Their success in solving these problems in
the past
Ideally we want to see a track record of real
work.
• “Open Source”
• “Public Deliverables”
• “Social Education/Publication”
Credential to
Capability
Image source: Richard Masoner

14. A life-long relationship that is problem, rather than
domain, focused
The individual and the educator
Our formal education provides us with three critical things:
1. It helps us to obtain the minimum body of knowledge required to identify,
discuss and solve the domain of problems that we are interested in
2. It provides us with experience across a broad range of domains, so that we are:
• aware of the limitations of our knowledge
• sensitive to different approaches and domains
• are hooked into the communities and knowledge flows that we can
participate in and draw on as required, building a life-long relationship
3. It provides us with opportunities to demonstrate our competence and value by:
• Enabling us to do real or simulated work
• Supporting us in publishing the results of our labour
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15. Challenge and opportunity rather than experience
and credential focus
The firm and the individual
Our relationship is founded on a shared interest
• The firm has problems that need to be solved
• The individual is interested in similar problems
We develop trust by looking into each others past and seeing what we have both
done.
We maintain our relationship as it provides both of us with the ability to learn and
grow (scalable learning).
We hire for capability and learning ability before we hire for expertise. We
actually would rather hire smart and curious people than people who are deep,
deep experts in one area or another.
Laszlo Bock
Google’s VP of People Operations
15

16. Insight and learning rather than questions and
answers
The educator and the firm
Theory typically follows practice. The steam engine came before thermodynamics.
Theory, however, enables us to optimise practice by providing us with a deeper
understanding of the problem at hand.
We work together to work smarter, rather than finding ourselves at opposite ends
of a R&D agreement:
• Firms benefit from insight into best practice and innovation from researchers
• Researches need access to data and facilities that industry has
For example:
• Google and the self driving car (its not new, its just better funded)
• NSA and cryptography (ditto)
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17. Our value has been the product of research
profile and credential quality. Now it’s the
product of our community vibrancy and student
achievements.
It is the quality of the knowledge flows within
and around our institution that create this value.
Moving courses online is a double edged
sword. While creating flexibility for students, it
can also prevent the development of a
community and reduce the value of our
knowledge flows.
Certification will remain, but it will be in niche
areas.
Research is something that the University
invests in to increase the value of its knowledge
flows.
Educators
Image source: Queen’s College

18. Formal education is a time to explore
problems and build skills.
It’s a hothouse that provides us with our initial
knowledge, hooks us into knowledge flows,
and helps us learn how to navigate the
problem and knowledge landscape.
Our education is built around solving
problems and exploring opportunities, and
takes place in public.
We should view this not as the start of “life-
long learning”, but beginning of “life-long
problem solving” or “life-long exploration”.
Individuals

19. Credentials are something we reach for when
the stakes are high: medical doctors,
structural engineers, etc.
For most of our needs we use track record
and an individual’s current abilities to
determine who to work with.
We engage researchers to help us optimise
what we’re doing. The researchers work out
what are the intersecting questions to
research (since that is the first bullet point in
their job description) and then bring us the
insight we need.
Organisations
Image source: Angelo DeSantis

20. The new (or emerging) model of knowledge work
Key questions
If how we use knowledge has change, then how we think about knowledge work
should change:
• It was: the application of known knowledge to solve a known problem
• It’s now: the integration/synthesis of knowledge to solve an unknown problem
What is the shape of this new knowledge work model? It’s key drivers?
How can we tell good work from bad work, when we don’t understand how the
work was done? (i.e. identifying snake oil)
How can we organise our institutions to optimise this new type of knowledge work?
How does this new model integrate with the education and training sector? Life
long learning? Or a life of exploration?
If we change how we think about (and manage) knowledge work, will it be possible
to improve productivity?
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21. Skills not domains
Key questions
The penetration of digital technology has transforms some/many traditional
domains of instruction into general purpose skills. Information technology – for
example – is taught as a separate subject, where students learn to use specific IT
tools and languages to solve arbitrary problems out of context. Does this still make
sense?
If the next generation is to move from being consumers to become productive
members of society, then they need to realise that these are general, not specific
skills. “Don’t teach them Java, show them how to use R to glean insights into a
problem that they’re working on.”
Subjects that we might (re)consider as “general skills” are:
• Technology / Information Technology
• Making / 3D Printing etc.
• Critical / Design Thinking
What is a complete list of these skills? How would we integrate them across the
curriculum? Can we do this bottom up? Or must it be top down?
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22. Managing the decline of (traditional) credentials
Key questions
Credentials are not going away. However, they are moving from being a general
tool that we apply in all situations, to a specialist tool that we apply when we don’t
have any other alternatives.
Should we de-couple credentials/certification from course structure?
• Currently the structure of courses and their content is determine (mainly) by the
demands of the certification process at the end of the course (mainly in senior
levels). Course is aligned with credential.
• An alternative is to build course content around exploration themes, with
students picking up credentials only where required (e.g. surgeon, food
handling). Course is aligned with problems/themes.
How would we decouple credentials/certification from course work? What are the
practicalities? Do we need catch-up subjects?
Do we need to create alternative – problem based – credentials?
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23. Exposing students to the world
Key questions
If it’s important for students to create a public track record, then we need to equip
the students with the skills to create and maintain this track record in a safe way.
How can they learn to use a range of publication tools (blogs, Instagram, …) in a
safe way?
How do they curate their profile?
Do some or all of their projects need to be warranted by an institution?
How do we deal with IP issues?
How do we equip them to deal with the dangers of internet fame?
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24. Fellow, Centre for the Edge AU
Peter is an advisor, author and
innovator who has held leadership
roles in global organisations through
to start-ups and R&D labs
pevansgreenwood@deloitte.com.au
Peter Evans-Greenwood
National Lead, Higher Education
Colette is a specialist in strategic
change and policy reform and is
recognised as for her insight regarding
the education sector
corogers@deloitte.com.au
Colette Rogers
CEO, Centre for the Edge AU
Peter is an innovator and thought
leader, founded Deloitte’s eBusiness
Consulting, was CEO of The Eclipse
Group and founded Deloitte Digital
pewilliams@deloitte.com.au
Peter Williams
Partner, Consulting
Fran’s extensive experience in public
sector reform provides her with unique
insight into system, policy and
business change across government
fthorn@deloitte.com.au
Fran Thorn
We’d love to hear
what you think
24
Principal, Consulting
Former academic in the Law School
at the University of Melbourne and
former Vice-Chancellor of Deakin
University
sawalker@deloitte.com.au
Professor (Emeritus) Sally Walker

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