Education innovation needs a boost – report

Education innovation needs a boost – report

A new report has found that less than a quarter of education and training providers believe the education system helps students become more innovative. This is despite 84% of these sectors considering innovation to be important.

The findings, contained in Canon Australia’s Business Readiness Index on Innovation, show that 93% of the education sector says communication is the most important skill to implement to drive innovation, followed by problem solving (88%) and adaptability (87%).

The most undervalued skills of employees recognised as important by less innovative companies include digital literacy (46%) and data science (30%).

Canon Australia’s Business Readiness Index on Innovation examines how well Australian businesses are equipped to keep up with changes in the country’s innovation landscape.

The report has found only 24% of the education and training sector believe the education system helps students become more innovative, and Australia’s tech sector is the least convinced.

Just 10% of the ‘professional, scientific and technical services’ sector believes the education system helps students stay ahead of the curve.

One of the missed opportunities appears to be around collaboration with universities. Australia is widely considered to be one of the leading centres for higher education and research yet according to this study, just 7% of businesses have capitalised on this valuable source.

According to the report, there is an opportunity to foster greater industry-university collaboration.

Additional key findings of the Index reveal that:

  • 84% of the education and training sectors consider innovation to be important
  • 60% of the education & training sector considering budget restrictions the main barrier on being innovative
  • Medium and large businesses are the most supportive of the Australian education system, with 36% of medium businesses and 42% of large businesses believing the education system helps students to become more innovative – only 21% small businesses think the education system helps students to become innovative.
  • 93% of the education sector say communication is the most important skill to implement to drive innovation, followed by problem solving (88%) and adaptability (87%)
  • The most undervalued skills of employees recognised as important by less innovative companies include digital literacy (46%) and data science (30%). This is compared to 77% for digital literacy and 53% for data science of their more innovative counterparts