Regardless of the subject they are going to teach, the vacancies currently published on the job markets and platforms are no longer only looking for professional experience in the subject to be taught, they are also valuing the staff skills such as creativity, innovation, leadership, student orientation, technology management, among others competencies.
For example, the Universidad del Valle de México (UVM) in an offer in its job bank for a Marketing teacher, in addition to training, requests that the future teacher have “a high sense of service, effective communication, organization and ethics”.
What do we look for in our teachers? Says the description of a vacancy at the International University of La Rioja in Mexico (UNIR) on Indeed. The job offer It is to join their faculty in the Faculty of Education and they look for “communication skills, digital skills, teaching innovation, student orientation, planning and commitment.”
Another example that educational institutions are prioritizing new habilities beyond technical knowledge, it is a job offer from the Industrial Banking School (EBC) through Computrabajo for a teacher in Technology Management. The institution seeks to add a person with skills such as “class management, effective communication, leadership, conflict management and analysis and interpretation of information.”
The need to train students with the skills to face an increasingly competitive market and with constant changes in production processes is also transforming the profile of teachers and educational institutions are prioritizing other skills to place a person in front of a group.
In this sense, the UTEL Talent Management area considers that teachers need to have skills such as:
- Management of digital tools
- Content development
- Good communication
- Creativity
- Innovation
- Resilience
- self learning
- Use of social networks
- attention to students
- continuous improvement
“The new role of teachers It requires us to train, update ourselves and be informed about advances in education. Likewise, we are interested in technological advances and, as far as possible, adapt new solutions for learning,” said Luisa Guillermina Ramírez Mazariego, a researcher at Tec de Monterrey, in an article by the Institute for the Future of Education.
Basic teacher skills
The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) estimates that in Mexico there are little more than 2 million teachers at all educational levels. This May 15 marks the Teacher’s Daydate to recognize a work that faces more and more challenges as the market demands new skills in talent.
Luisa Ramírez conducted research among teachers in Mexico City, Monterrey, Guadalajara, León, among other cities, which allowed her to identify the skills of the staff teachers required to face the education of the future. After analyzing the strategies implemented by more than 40 teachers, the researcher concluded that thebasic skills that teachers should have are:
- Put knowledge into practice
- Manage learning progress
- encourage collaboration
- Ability to self-assess
- Promote teamwork
- Participate in school management
- Use new technologies
- Encourage effective communication
- constantly train
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) states that traditional education models they responded to an industrialized economy to train the workforce with basic skills, but in the face of rapid technological advance, teaching models must be transformed. The conclusion is simple: you cannot train the talent of the future with the education of the past.
Digital skills, a pending
The development of a teacher with a digital profile is perhaps one of the pending issues that we have as a country and in general, in the Latin American region. However, these teachers are not only masters of technology, Graciela Rojas, president of the STEM Movement, considers that a digital teacher is one who knows how to generate critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and problem solving in their students. “Without these skills, Mexico will hardly be able to face the challenges of the 21st century,” he warns.
Through your study The future of work in Latin America and the Caribbean What are the trends in post-secondary education? The IDB states that the ability and training of teachers is the main barrier that educational institutions perceive to advance in the digital offer.
“In order for educational institutions to get the most out of the digital toolsthere is still a long way to go in the training of teachers”, underlines the study.
In Latin America, only the 13% of teachers have advanced digital skills, while among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries the average is 49 percent. In our region, four out of 10 teachers have a lower level of digital skills, that means they have basic knowledge such as the use of email or a browser.