Exclusive Trusted Magazine Q&A with Myriam Bonami, Founder @ MBH-UPSKILLING
How could you describe your career path in few words?
I can say that I have had a versatile career, rich both in human experiences and professionally. As I am very curious by nature and appreciate new challenges, I have worked over 14 years in several different sectors, such as consulting, fashion retail, food and beverage, press, and finally education which I love. I want now to focus my career towards this sector.
Therefore, the career change or switch is being hailed as a milestone. I was looking for more challenges and excitements. There is nothing wrong with making a switch and attempting a new venture, particularly when transitioning into something as fulfilling as entering the world of education.
I came into education having always been interested in training in general where I never missed the opportunity to improve myself and inform myself of new market trends. After an immersion of my EMBA where I had the chance to carry out several educational trips during two years and where I was able to immerse myself by getting to know several nationalities of students where several cultures mingle, I had the impulse to the wish to work in this environment.
What was your most challenging experience and it has changed your mindset?
My most challenging experience has been working with young students who demonstrate many traits of a closed mindset and transform their approach into a growth mindset. Basically, I show them that by harnessing their talents they can learn to do anything through discipline and hard work.
Although, contact with learners on a daily basis fascinates me and gives me this desire to share skills transfers through mentoring to guide and support my groups of students from all backgrounds.
Concretely what has changed my mindset is above all the growth mindset that I learned to cultivate through social inclusion, love of learning, humility, sharing and a resilience that is essential to deliver great accomplishments. Challenges, risks, and failures are all opportunities for me to grow and improve.
When you get surprised by unusual or uncertain context, what do you think?
The business world has changed dramatically over the last few decades, and we now live in a connected society where change can be fast-paced, constant and unpredictable in a VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous).
Without forgetting the actual pandemic, VUCA represents a set of challenges which meet uncertainty that has to be understood. This defiance that individuals, teams, managers, and organizations in affected industries all have to face. Individually, these challenges can be significant, but they can be formidable when they're combined.
In my opinion, each type of situation, has its own causes and resolutions, so when I am faced to unusual or uncertain context, I challenge myself to aim to deal with one at a time and cultivate the resilience by accepting and embracing change of my working environment, surrounding myself with good people, create a strong compelling statement of team objectives and values, and developing a clear shared vision of the future.
In short, I promote diversity, collaborative work, adaptability and agility and make sure that I set my team members flexible goals that I can amend when necessary. This allows them to navigate unsettled, unfamiliar situations, and react quickly to changes.
In a context where Business Schools are challenged on their real societal usefulness, the EU is committed to the benefit of future generations, through its new ambitious strategic plan for the horizon of 2021-2027. What would be the major potential strategic axes for the future?
We are talking above all at this moment of the Strategic Action Plan for Digital Education (2021-2027) is a renewed initiative of the European Union (EU) aimed at supporting the sustainable and effective adaptation of education systems and training of EU Member States in the digital age.
The action plan proposes a long-term strategic vision for quality, inclusive and accessible European digital education by challenging and seizing the opportunities associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in unprecedented use of technology for education and training. The main purpose seeks to strengthen cooperation at EU level in the field of digital education and stresses the importance of working together across sectors to bring education into the digital age, supporting the digitization of teaching methods and pedagogies and providing the necessary infrastructure for inclusive distance learning and resilient.
Among the major strategic axes, we are now witnessing a social impact with a new learning model that we can retain:
The transition training of sustainable ecological and social development, a generalized and increased hybridization, intra-entrepreneurship in the service of a responsible economy, sustainable finance to meet the societal challenges of the economy and respond to global climate change, Tech, AI, VR &Humanities: towards a new model transmission of knowledge, an international strategy based on experience alliances of excellence on different global campuses, redesigned as places of inclusion and exchange in order to promote new forms of digital and collaborative pedagogies.
What skills would be expected of learners in the digital age by 2030?
Young learners from the rising Alfa and Gen Z generations have transformed the educational and professional landscape. By giving them confidence and guiding them, we can expect to promote real emerging talent.
Nowadays, long training courses will gradually give way to short training courses and general hybrids profiles throughout life learning.
One figure is striking: According to several studies, 60% of the professions of 2030 do not yet exist. Education specialists agree on the qualities students will need to acquire to prepare for the future: critical thinking, creativity, good communication skills, empathy, humility, resilience, tenacity and thirst for learning.
The ten key skills of tomorrow are based on the following axes:
• 1 Solving complex problems (Resilience)
• 2. Critical Thinking (Thinking out the box)
• 3. Creativity (Design Thinking, Co-creativity, Intrapreneurial)
• 4. People management (Remote work, Mobility, autonomy)
• 5. Coordination with others (Outsourcing, solidarity trade)
• 6. Emotional intelligence (Collective intelligence, Transfer skills)
• 7. Judgment and decision making (Visionary)
• 8. Service orientation (Customer centric, customer Experience)
• 9. Negotiation (Responsible Economy, collaboration synergies, Market share)
• 10. Cognitive flexibility
So, the effective learner must be responsive and empathetic on the inside to stimulate personal development by creating challenging goals in various places and times. Currently, the experience learning is focused on not only on academic excellence performance but also on holistic student well-being. In short, education is no longer about teaching students; it is more important to find their own way in a world that is increasingly complex, volatile and uncertain.
