Today, HundrED and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced the launch of a new Spotlight project. This project aims to identify effective models for cultivating 21st-century skills, also called transversal skills, in students by looking for innovations in learning from Latin America and the Caribbean. This launch takes place within the framework of the United Nations World Youth Skills Day, which this year focuses on the theme "Skills for a resilient youth in the era of COVID-19 and beyond".
Together over the next year, HundrED and the IDB will shine a Spotlight on the region by selecting a diverse range of innovations that are promoting 21st-century skills inside and outside formal education, including but not limited to: social-emotional skills, project-based learning, self-guided learning through digital, music, sports, citizenship, and entrepreneurship programs. This Spotlight will discover the leading innovations developing transversal skills in students in the region; understand how schools and organizations can implement these innovations; gain insight into any required social or economic conditions for these innovations to be effectively introduced into a learning context, and celebrate and broadcast these innovations to help them spread to new countries.
Innovations will undergo a rigorous evaluative research process that adheres to specific criteria around impact and scalability. The final innovations will be selected by an advisory board of 40 education stakeholders -including teachers, leaders, experts, academics, and students- who will have expertise from a range of contexts and perspectives in education. As part of this partnership, the IDB and HundrED invite innovators to contribute to this effort and participate in this Spotlight by sharing their work.
HundrED has also joined the IDB’s Coalition for Transversal Skills in the 21st Century. The Coalition is a multi-sector partnership led by the IDB to promote the development and strengthening of transversal skills, in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Coalition is an open partnership and the IDB invites interested public and private organizations to join the initiative and help lead global, transformative efforts to leverage technology as a tool to transform the lives of individuals across the region.
As part of its membership in the Coalition, HundrED will collaborate with IDB and other partners on new ways to leverage innovation projects to advance equity and inclusion in education. HundrED has been highly active in seeking, sharing, and spreading education innovations across the world with over 4000 passionate innovators and educators and stakeholders. With a solution-oriented and global approach, they have become experts in pedagogically sound innovations that are highly impactful and scalable.
The collective action is within the framework of the 21st Century Skills Initiative promoted by the IDB. The initiative responds to the new challenges faced by students in the 21st century, shaped by an extremely dynamic environment with a changing labor market and increasingly diverse societies. Including the addition of the Wikimedia Foundation, nearly 30 public and private sector partners have joined the Coalition: Ashoka, CLOO Behavioral Insights Unit, D2L, Education Above All, Empresarios por la Educación-Colombia, Forge, Fundación Danilo Perez, Fundación F.C. Barcelona,Fundación Gratitud, Fundación Scholas Ocurrentes, Google, GRAMMY Music Education Coalition, Holberton School, iNNpulsa, ISTE, Minerva, REDUCA, Skills Agility Lab, SKT Telecom, Think Equal, TUMO Center for Creative Technologies, Virtual Educa, Fundación Real Madrid, MEDUCA, Laboratoria, Fundación Trilema, Fundación Santillana, Fundación Wikimedia, Fundación Gabo and HundrED.
The submission call deadline for the Spotlight is Friday, October 30th, 2020 and to find out more information and submit innovations, please visit the 21st Century Skills Spotlight page.
About the IDB
The Inter-American Development Bank is devoted to improving lives. Established in 1959, the IDB is a leading source of long-term financing for economic, social, and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The IDB also conducts cutting-edge research and provides policy advice, technical assistance, and training to public and private sector clients throughout the region.
About HundrED
HundrED is a Finnish based, global education not-for-profit that discovers, researches, and shares inspiring innovations in K-12 education. HundrED’s goal is to help improve education and foster a movement through encouraging valuable impactful and scalable innovations to spread, mindful of context, across the world. Since 2016 HundrED has been conducting rigorous research on all continents and selecting 100 inspiring innovations annually. All of the insights and selected innovations are documented, packaged, and shared with educators around the world for free. Learn more at Hundred.org
