Panel shares how to develop new competencies with Tec21 Model

Participants on the QS In Conversation panel shared their thoughts on how universities can collaborate to teach new competencies that employers are looking for and thus create further job opportunities.

Ignacio de la Vega, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, Faculty, and Internationalization at Tec de Monterrey, shared details about the Tec21 Model during the discussion Developing New Competencies for Students in the 21st Century.

De la Vega was joined by Patricia Stuart, Vice President of the University of Lima, and Mercedes Mateo Díaz, Education Division Chief at the Inter-American Development Bank. Afifah Darke, Deputy Editor at QS, was the moderator.

The panel took place on June 22 and was broadcast via video conference.

Sharing the Tec21 Model experience

The panelists discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected what employers require of recent graduates.

They noted that recruiting requirements over the last two years have included skills that many students aren’t fully trained in.

Ignacio de la Vega pointed out that the Tec21 Model helps students with skills development.

“Our Tec21 Model is designed to help our graduates develop the necessary competencies for their industry and their discipline,” said De la Vega.

The Tec21 Model is based on challenge-based learning with flexibility, inspiring professors, and a memorable student experience.

“Our Tec21 model is designed according to skills to help our graduates develop the necessary competencies for their industry and their discipline.”

“The purpose of our institution is to foster a conscious integration of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and values that allow our students to successfully confront structured, complex, and changing situations,” said De la Vega.

“It’s a combination of disciplinary knowledge and skills that we need in order to succeed,” he added.

They noted that being able to learn how to learn is a key skill for adapting to this new way of learning, which is what the job market requires of new graduates.

“In order to learn, you need to figure out how to use the knowledge you already have to acquire new skills that respond to the shifting needs that arise,” said Stuart.

Synergy between universities and enterprise

The second topic of interest discussed by the panel was finding a way for higher education institutions and businesses to work together to close the emerging skills gap.

De la Vega explained that the Tec21 Model puts faculty together with companies, startups, governments, and NGOs, among others, to design the challenges that students will solve throughout the academic period.

“This new (Tec21) model forces us to discover and understand the new role of business in society, so that faculty can design and develop a challenge for students to work on as a team with the company over five weeks,” De la Vega explained.

The Tec’s Associate Provost pointed out that students need to acquire skills through real-world challenges.

“As a professor of entrepreneurship, the entrepreneurial mindset, social intelligence, citizenship, and ethical values, I think one of the main parts of our institutional vision is human flourishing with cross-cutting skills that are subject to change,” he added.

“One of the main parts of our Tec vision is human flourishing with cross-cutting skills that are subject to change.”

They said that we are now running a race against time, since the environment hasn’t changed much due to a disconnect between how we’re living today and society’s level of education.

“The slow increase in productivity from higher education is due to the fact that it reacts slower than entrepreneurial innovation. We need to support higher education institutions so that they can diversify these high-quality programs,” said Mateo Díaz.

“How universities and businesses can work together to create more job opportunities and the challenges facing the higher education industry are very important and timely topics,” concluded Darke, the moderator.

About Quacquarelli Symonds

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) is a British evaluation firm specializing in analyzing and providing information to the global higher education sector.

Its mission is to enable motivated people anywhere in the world to fulfil their potential through educational achievement, international mobility, and career development.

Click here for more information on this panel.

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