Supporting Skills for Inclusion: International professional rehabilitation competence in traumatic environments

Dr. Alan BruceUniversal Learning Systems, Dublin

Dr. Terri LewisNational Changhua University of Education, Taiwan

NCRE ConferenceAnaheim, California20 April 2017

Overview and Objectives

• Educational and social development experiences of disabled citizens havebeen shaped by the significance of work, productivity and utility.

• Professional responses are reinforced by family expectations, formalschooling systems, and national policy.

• Work concepts permeate the world of disabled citizens, influencing behavior,motivation, and self-esteem.

• This matrix assumes stability in economic and social environments. Whendisrupted by traumatic events, new understanding of the meaning of workand jobs is required.

• We examine challenges in developing new forms of rehabilitationcompetence to address linked but disparate issues of traumatic socio-economic change

• We examine three international environments: Europe, Taiwan and theUnited States.

1. Global Economy Transformation

• Change

• Connectedness

• Technology

• Urbanization

• Stress and uncertainty

• New skills and learning

How work patterns are evolving in reaction to change drivers

• Size and structure of global labor force

• Emergence of global production systems: changes in the international division of labor

• Shift away from agricultural work and growth of informal economies in developing countries

• Poverty and work incomes

• Equality of opportunity in employment

• Impact of ICT and digital economy

• Diversity in work conditions

• New challenges for social security.

Challenges, Old & New

• Ethnic demographics

• Ongoing discrimination regarding disability

• National frameworks and policies

• Socio-cultural structures and norms

• Flexibility and adaptability

• Problem identification and resolution

• Educational systems and the ownership of learning

• Best employment practice

Change and Globalization

• Globalization – accelerating and pervasive

• Crisis and re-structuring since 2008

• Devaluation of the public sphere

• Stratification and inequity – issue of social justice

• Labor market transformation

• Mobile capital and global investment linkage

• Issues on inclusion – token or real?

• Access, quality and innovation in education

• Generational demographics

From participation to inclusion

• Impact of universal schooling

• The university revolution – from distance learning to MOOCs

• Impact of legislation and policy

• Technological revolution only starting

• From psychology to engineering – the altered environment

• Shaping the mind – struggles with attitudes

Change dynamics

• Sustained and systemic

• Accelerating change and turmoil

• Multidimensional and simultaneous

• Structural incapacity to incorporate required modifications and adjustments

• Deep uncertainty in terms of future options

• Unprecedented levels of challenge

Defining traumatic environments

• Stressors imposed by population shift on local resources

• Religious and cultural clashes

• Migration and refugees

• Lack of mental health and rehabilitative infrastructures

• Impact of environmental catastrophe

• Wars and conflict

• Lack of law, regulation, guidance

• Lack of effective partnerships through political agreements

• Breakdown of existing political structures - inadequate international structures

• Slavery

• Population health and disease, epidemiology of crisis

Crisis since 2008• Seismic shift in human relationships

• Competitive pressures

• New forms of work organization

• New diversities

• Structural imbalances accelerating

• Identity and threat of difference

• End of welfare: demographic time-bombs

• Knowledge, innovation and democratic deficits

Employment worldwide

• Within the developing world, the Asia and Pacific regions dominate, accounting for more than 57% of all employment.

• The two giants, China and India, have 26.0% and 14.8% of world employment, respectively.

• Sub-Saharan Africa has 9.3%; North Africa and the Middle East 4.1%; Latin America and the Caribbean 8.4%.

• The non-EU South Eastern Europe and CIS countries account for 5.9%.

Educational Change

• Death of traditional university model

• Growth of distance education, online learning, & MOOCs

• Decline in quality of education as resources reduce

• Rebirth of competency based education programs

• Growth of community colleges

• Investment in ‘free access’ to learning

• Explosive levels of student debt as a US phenomenon

• Lifelong learning and vocational re-careering

• Artificial intelligence

• Funding and resources

• Does Everyone Need a College Degree?

2: Contours of European issues

• From common market to Union

• Economic powerhouse: the social model

• Free movement of labour

• Diversity, complexity and danger zones

• The impact of globalization

• Triumph of neo-liberalism: the end of growth

• Stagnant employment: booming innovation

EU thematic Objectives (2014-20)

• Research and innovation

• Competitiveness for SMEs

• Employment and labour mobility support

• Social inclusion and combating poverty

• Education, skills and lifelong learning

• Institutional capacity building.

New Skills Agenda for Europe

• Improve the quality and relevance of skills formation

• Make skills more visible and comparable

• Improve skills intelligence and information for better career choices

Trajectories of inclusion

• Youth and mass unemployment

• Demographics: ageing and life expectancy

• Women and labor market participation

• Immigration, cultural and religious difference

• Disability

• Conflict, stress, anomie

• Urbanization, dissent and democratic deficits

Reality on our doorstep

Refugee realities

Migration & Trauma

• February 2017: 4.9 million Syrian refugees

• Since Summer 2015, 850,000 have attempted EU entry:highly vulnerable populations

• Some 55% of Syrian refugees are under 18

• Responses inconsistent at national level

• Moved from humanitarian crisis to need to provide supports

• Needs of migrant and immigrant populations pose real challenges and opportunities for schools and educators.

• Education, assessment, support, counseling and employment are critical – and not provided.

Greece: Lesbos

• In February 2016, over 30,000 refugees arrived on Lesbos (totalpopulation of 85,000).

• Over 80 aid organizations helping refugees on Lesbos -gateway for refugee movement to Greece and Europe.

• In 2015 alone over 600,000 refugees arrived in Greece. Todayover 60,000 refugees are stranded in Greece. Some 6,500refugees are housed in Moria camp in Lesbos, built toaccommodate 3,000.

• No education resources are provided

http://lesvossolidarity.org/index.php/en/

https://youtu.be/t2hxGn7MkjY

Original Learning Center: donated by Médecins Sans Frontières - 2016

New Learning Center under Construction 2017

Lesbos Solidarity

• Operates Pikpa Camp • Provides welcome, support, advocacy and awareness for outside

community• Provides education and training facilities• Lesvos Solidarity believes that no human is illegal and that borders should

be open. • It is the only open camp in Lesvos and it is envisages all refugee reception

centers are run in this way• Developing imaginative responses to need for rehabilitation• Central involvement of eternal agencies in supporting strategic plan.

3. Lessons from Taiwan

• Examining initiatives taking place in Taiwan as it grappleswith problems of an aging population, low birth rate andthe fact that 50% of the population is already over 65

• Taiwan also has the most highly educated population onthe planet but perhaps the most under-employed.

4. United States

• Initiatives taking place in the United States, which ismaking the transition to WIOA, which places theemphasis on skilled employment

• No provisions for the impact of aging populations

• No provision for assimilation of migrants into the labormarketplace.

The Skills Gap – Business Roundtable

• United States currently lags in producing talent that businesses needto compete in the modern economy. The Bureau of Labor Statisticsreported (May 2014) that the number of unfilled private-sector jobopenings increased to 4.2 million - despite 9.5 million U.S. workersunemployed.

• Job openings continue to be unfilled primarily due to lack ofcandidate qualifications. Georgetown University’s Center onEducation and the Workforce projects that 65% of jobs will requirepostsecondary education and training by 2020.

• If the current production rate of postsecondary graduates holds, theUnited States will be short 5 million postsecondary-educated workersby that date.

Human Capital Skills changing

In a “global knowledge economy,” companies realize human capital is their most important resource. Jobs—especially those in globally competitive firms—are changing in four key ways:

1. Less hierarchy and supervision.

2. More autonomy and responsibility.

3. More collaboration.

4. Less predictability and stability.

As the CEO of UPS described it in 2005, “We look for [employees] who can learn how to learn.” In order to fitthat description, students will need to come out of school with these skills:

• The ability to act independently and solve problems on their own

• Strong interpersonal written, oral, and social skills to collaborate with colleagues

• Strong global literacy to understand people around the world

• The ability to acquire the information they need to do the job

• The ability to learn new skills as corporations change strategies to stay competitive.

Competency Clusters

• The Cognitive Domain includes three clusters ofcompetencies: cognitive processes and strategies,knowledge, and creativity.

• The Intrapersonal Domain includes three clusters ofcompetencies: intellectual openness, work ethic andconscientiousness, and positive core self-evaluation.

• The Interpersonal Domain includes two clusters ofcompetencies: teamwork and collaboration andleadership.

Impact of 21st Century Skills

The field of rehabilitation

Worker skills

Counselor competencies

Socio cultural and multiple language skills

2+1 EU policy: Native language + 2 others

English is the Global language

Conclusions

• Rehabilitation education at a crossroads: both structure and process

• Global focus is on mobility, skills and innovation

• Global citizenship model offers significant opportunities

• Transnational action is the only viable method in a globalized world

• All rests on vision and passion for community needs

• Innovative learning demands imagination and vision

• Moving from advocacy to action

Thank you

Dr. Alan Bruce

ULS Dublin

abruce@ulsystems.comAssociate Offices: BARCELONA - HELSINKI - SÃO PAULO - CHICAGO

Dr. Terri Lewis

NCUE Taiwan