More than 100 business leaders and educators from the Quad Cities area gathered at St. Ambrose University (SAU) on Thursday, April 13 to participate in the annual Innovation Summit.
Launched last year by President Amy C. Novak, EdD, the Innovation Summit was created with the goal of better understanding trends shaping the business environment and identifying new curricular approaches and teaching practices to best prepare SAU students for the next generation of work.
“This is a shifting landscape, so we are exploring the evolution of learning both inside and outside of the traditional classroom,” said Dr. Novak. “We know that sixty percent of jobs in the next decade are not jobs that currently exist, and over half of jobs in the next five years will require upskilling or reskilling. The real question is ‘how do we equip people for these future jobs?’”
In an attempt to answer this question, the event’s agenda centered around defining what it means to have a growth mindset. Facilitated table discussions sought to understand the attributes or behaviors one with this mindset may exhibit, creative strategies to foster this commitment to learning, and the experiences that ultimately characterize this type of classroom or workplace environment.
At the conclusion of the program, Dr. Novak announced a new workforce development program coming fall 2023 to support continued education for students and personalized and dedicated support for business partners to drive outcomes. SAU will introduce over 50 fully online, industry-recognized certifications in the areas of healthcare, information technology, advanced manufacturing and essential human skills.
“This initiative, designed for working professionals, offers greater career mobility and allows us to address critical areas of need in the region,” said Dr. Novak. “It also offers our business partners a new solution for employee recruitment, retention and talent development with affordable, scalable and flexible learning options.”
More information about the workforce development program will be shared in the coming months. Summit guests were also invited to see SAU’s innovative approaches in action and test out the virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology SAU is piloting in its classrooms as part of a recent partnership with VictoryXR.
“What really resonated with me was when President Novak was talking about the concept of virtual reality and said, ‘we’re intentionally investing in VR learning because, regardless of how you feel about it, this technology will influence how we do things,’” said Jon Sexton, senior vice president of culture and leadership development at Vibrant Credit Union.
“For a generation that consistently engages with their phones and other tech, we’re finding that students cannot multitask in a VR environment,” said Novak. “You become fully immersed. The smart phone is no longer a variable that can disrupt the learning environment.”
Also new to this year’s summit agenda was a focus on the student voice. A student panel, featuring a mix of five undergraduate and graduate students’ perspectives, was a highlight and welcomed addition to the dialogue.
“Student voices are everything in the K-12 realm. Shame on us if we’re strategic planning, setting goals, reshaping what we do without engaging our most precious resource, and that is our students. We need more of that,” said Dr. Rachel Savage, superintendent of the Moline Coal Valley School District. “I appreciated the student panel probably the most today.”
The growth mindset theme was developed in direct response to employers who attended last year who want to see students transition away from a fixed mindset towards the intellectual curiosity needed for success in today’s workforce. Similar to last year’s Innovation Summit, SAU plans to curate and analyze feedback from those in attendance last week to inform future curricular decisions on campus.
The evolution of the Innovation Summit demonstrates the founding principle upon which it was designed – that SAU recognizes community collaboration is key to preparing the next generation of workers.
“If you’re not at the Innovation Summit and you are local to the Quad Cities, you’re missing a tremendous opportunity to build connections with other business leaders and to hear what other organizations are doing to enhance their workforce, enhance their culture, and create an experience that people want to be a part of,” expressed Sexton.
For more information about the Innovation Summit, visit sau.edu/innovation.
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