RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – At the installation of the fourth edition of the Skills Summit 2022 (Skills Summit), of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in Cartagena, the secretary-general of this international organization, Mathias Cormann, pointed out that it is essential to generate an education accessible to all in which the population is trained in skills that keep pace with the digital transformation that accelerated during the pandemic.
“You have to have the relevant skills to succeed and fully participate in the varied options of the economy,” he argued. He also indicated that more and more people trained in digital skills would be needed.
However, he noted that this transformation must not be uneven.
“Leveling and upgrading opportunities must be provided for all. Youth have been particularly affected by the pandemic, so opportunities for recovery must be generated,” he said.
In this sense, he highlighted that despite the school closures, Colombia was one of the countries that did not stop exams and guaranteed remote access.
The President of the Republic, Iván Duque, pointed out that a life cycle must be generated from early care to youth policies and creativity for the development of skills.
“They were telling us a while ago how Colombia is one of the countries that best weathered the pandemic in terms of the education system and maintaining skills, seeking training, graduating students. It was not easy, nor was it something in which there were manuals or premises. We achieved it based on having a digitized society, and the OECD has recorded in its reports that Colombia took a fundamental step in the digitization of the State”, said Duque.
The President also invited the OECD countries to “develop, implement and guide the union of two concepts: sustainability and technology, which can be united and called in a single form, as sosTECnibilidad”.
And he said that it is necessary to advance policies towards carbon neutrality and how these goals (51% less emissions in 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2050) can and should be measured through technology.