Marlene Olsavsky: Good evening, everyone. My name is Marlene
Olsavsky. I'm the senior vice president for international higher education at Pearson.
I'm joining you this evening from Toronto, Ontario in Canada, where I am currently working
and living in my home office. I'm delighted to be joined by Jacky Wright, chief digital
officer and corporate vice president at Microsoft. Jacky Wright is a transformational global
leader, an innovative technologist, and a recognized STEM advocate. She's a senior whose
extensive career spans multiple industries. As chief digital officer and corporate vice
president of Microsoft in the United States, Jacky inspires and leads teams to drive innovation,
adopts sustainable and accessible business models, and digitally transform their practices.
Welcome, Jacky. It's so lovely to meet you and an absolute pleasure to be here with you
today. Thank you so much for carving time out of your very busy schedule to share some
o Jacky Wright:
Yeah, I touched on this notion of collaborating, this ecosystem. None of us have the answers
to every challenge so we really do need to collaborate to achieve the outcomes we want.
So I would encourage you to collaborate across industry, departments, universities, you name
it. This public and private sector and harnessing the power of that, I think those are really
ways that we can really come together to really collaborate to solve these problems. The second
is harnessing data to optimize your effectiveness, better understand your progress, pivot where
you need it and really transform your outcome so you can scale the impact of your project
or program, and using those insights to then iterate in an agile way. Those are just two
things that come to mind for me. Marlene Olsavsky:
Great. You know, with the shift with COVID and with the digital transformation, in higher
education, we're also seeing a major shift in student demographics. How do you think
educators and institutions should be thinking about creating more access to support equity
and inclusion for future learners in their classrooms?
Jacky Wright: Yeah, a really important point, Marlene. I
do think we need to be mindful first of how we define student. That definition is expanding
as you think about learners of all kinds, people seeking out new skills for success
in this digital economy, you can be very fluid and virtual as you think about the definition
of a student. We're also seeing more diverse groups gain access to higher education for
the first time, so in places like the US, the National Center for Education Statistics'
snapshot of American undergraduates show that nearly 74% of students represent more than
non-traditional backgrounds. 25% are single parents, 20% are over the age of 25 and 50%
are financially independent, and we're seeing this trend around the globe. So this requires
institutions in my mind to really rethink the kinds of services and support that they
offer to address these unique needs. Jacky Wright:
Things like these wraparound services such as childcare for student parents, after hours
tutoring, access to collaboration tools, wellness and mental health resources, and then career
services for students with disabilities, just to name a few. I also think there is this
issue of accessibility and really thinking about how we move beyond the disability resource
office to really how we use technology to integrate accessibility into all facets of
the education experience, from the devices, the platforms used in the classroom, to course
formats, to campus activities and events. I want to highlight one experience that I've
seen in terms of educator using data to really understand the demographics in their local
community, to then highlight the potential barriers in that community. And then how do
we then augment what those barriers are to really make sure that the learning experience
can exist. Jacky Wright:
And then lastly, we have to think about the kind of culture we're creating for students
and staff. Are our academic institutions truly inclusive places for the various kinds of
learners enrolling? I mean, we can't really innovate without diversity, and that starts
with really engendering the right culture. So for me, where you harness the power of
everyone and empower them to do their best work, that's when you truly get the power
of innovation. Those are just some of the things I think institutions should be mindful
of as we are really thinking about creating more access for future learners.
Marlene Olsavsky: Yeah, those are all great points, and none
of them are easy to solve for. And I know as a learning company, we've been working
directly with institutions, with students, with governments to figure how can we make
education more affordable and accessible? Thanks so much for answering that.
Marlene Olsavsky: Another question I have here is about innovation
and it requiring us to not only think differently, but to take risks. As our awardees have demonstrated,
it also requires us to think about how the nature of work is changing. There are many
rewards of upskilling and re-skilling through education. How do you see academic institutions
and enterprise working together to address and close the growing skills gap?
Jacky Wright: Yeah, this has been a burning issue and platform
for many organizations and corporations, and Microsoft, we also recognize the need to work
with academia, private and public institutions. So while changes in technology are just really
reshaping workforce expectations, they also give institutions tremendous opportunity to
adapt and push innovation forward, and again, in partnership with public and private sector.
And so for us as Microsoft, as a technology company, we understand the importance of really
investing in skills development to ensure equitable participation in what we all believe
is an increasingly digital society. Jacky Wright:
In response to the pandemic, we launched this global skills initiative that really brings
together a coalition of civic, learning and corporate partners to help skill and re-skill
the workforce. We've established specific partnerships with various universities to
support their innovative technologies and research in
such
things
as mixed reality, AI, cloud computing and IOT, and
then
really
partnering with our corporate partners to commit to hiring these learners that we've
really focused on really skilling. This whole notion of this ecosystem and the ability to
remove the digital exclusion barriers, increase digital skilling, especially in underserved
communities, and holding our private sector as accountable as the public and academia.
I think this is the secret sauce to really changing the landscape in terms of digital
inclusion and making sure that we're closing the skills gap.
Marlene Olsavsky: Right. I think Microsoft has done some really
outstanding work in this area, and I know that we at Pearson are looking at the work
that you've done and as well as other companies. I have one final question for you because
I know our audience members are going to be moving on to their next awards agenda item.
My final question is, let me frame it. There's a greater sense of urgency to plan for teaching
and learning of tomorrow with the recent shifts that we're seeing in education. Based on what
you've experienced and seen, Jackie, how is short-term planning and long-term strategic
vision changing in response to some of those innovations?
Jacky Wright: You know, Marlene, I think it's an interesting
question and I think the whole notion of... What this pandemic has done has really turned
upside down how you think about planning, and so you need to think about what are these
existential risks that are inhibiting or may inhibit our ability to provide services, to
educate, and how can we really innovate for that? And so this notion of short term and
longterm planning with really focusing on what are those existential risks that we see
in society? That is the new way of really focusing on how to innovate. And whether you
you're in education, whether you are in manufacturing, healthcare, the uber point is we have threats
that come up that we've never imagined. We have to ensure that people are not digitally
excluded, and we have to understand the impact in those underrepresented communities and
how we can overcome them, and that needs to be embedded in our short-term planning and
our long-term planning. Jacky Wright:
Wanted to just congratulate all the awardees for everything that they're doing and just
really to continue the great work. Marlene Olsavsky:
Great. Thank you so much, Jackie, for those inspiring insights, and I think all of our
audience members here tonight can take away some of what you shared and apply it to their
own work. I've been starting to think about how I can apply some of your insights to my
work too here at Pearson, so thank you so very much. Have a great evening and good luck
to all of our award nominees. Jacky Wright:
Thank you.
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