Tec and WEF join forces to drive future of education in Latin America

Tec de Monterrey now forms part of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Foresight Network and its Strategic Intelligence platform; it will be the creator, curator, and translator of content on education foresight for Mexico and Latin America.

In this way, it joins the WEF global ecosystem platform in the company of universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Oxford.

“This is a strategic step for designing possible higher education futures.

“It gives us a chance to transform uncertainty into opportunities and reaffirm our commitment to contribute to the transformation of lives in Latin America,” explained David Garza, Executive President of the Tecnológico de Monterrey Education Group.

The WEF and Tec have been working together since last February. This collaboration was formalized on September 11 with the setting up of a partnership to identify areas of opportunity and trends in higher education in Mexico and Latin America.

Sharing global trends and possible futures

Liaison between the Tec and the World Economic Forum (WEF) Foresight Network began with work done by the institution internally to identify trends and prospects in different areas, especially in education.

In a first phase, a group of strategic foresight professors started mapping and grouping trends.

Five participatory workshops were held on the Guadalajara, Querétaro, Monterrey, Puebla, and Mexico City campuses. Local stakeholders, external partners, civil organizations, and other universities were invited to attend with the goal of prioritizing the most relevant trends for higher education.

In the search for an accessible, intuitive, open platform on which to share findings, the team approached the WEF Foresight Network through Guillermina Benavides, Director of the master’s program in Strategic Foresight, whichhas been part of the network for over three years.

“It’s an opportunity to turn uncertainty into opportunity and reaffirm our commitment to help transform lives in Latin America.” - David Garza

This official partnership will make it possible for analysis and content produced by the Tec to evolve from existing as documents published annually to becoming resources that are available on an open, dynamic, regional site that is constantly being updated.

“Our most valuable contribution is the dissemination of how higher education in Latin America in envisioned. 

“This tool will enable us to filter and visualize trends in a clear and intuitive way so as to make decisions that bring us closer to the future we envision,” explained Alejandra Molina, National Director of Crisis Management and Internal Control.

A global tool for predicting futures

The World Economic Forum’s global foresight ecosystem is a network that operates with dynamic radars powered by artificial intelligence. 

These tools are found on the Strategic Intelligence platform, which has gathered more than 350 thematic maps and involves the participation of 400 content partners.

Bryonie Guthrie, leader of Foresight and Organizational Transformation at the WEF, explained that the tool enables the visualization of global issues: interrelationships between the economy, technology, environment, and society.

She also said that it will have special, yet-to-be-defined features tailored to the Tec community for academic and research purposes.

“Strategic foresight enables us to broaden our foresight, question assumptions and recognize that there is always more than one path into the future,” Guthrie underscored in a talk she gave to the Tec community.

“Foresight enables us to broaden perspectives, question assumptions, and recognize that there is more than one path into the future.” - Bryonie Guthrie

Using methodologies like trend analysis, scenario building, and weak signal identification, users will be able to design informed actions in present time.

Two full School of Government and Public Transformation graduate scholarships for the Master’s in Public Policy with a specialization in Strategic Foresight were announced as part of the WEF network and Tec collaboration. 

These scholarships will enable students to learn about public policy and foresight and to help as custodians and translators of the WEF’s maps into Spanish, thereby improving Latin America’s access to this global knowledge. 

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