It has been just over a week since the economist Àngels Fitó (Barcelona, ​​1970) took command of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). Until now vice-rector of Competitiveness and Employability, the new rector will focus, precisely, on the consequences of the turbulent labor market of the future. “The dream would be for the UOC to be a point of reference for those people who have the need (or desire) to improve professionally and know that we will accompany them and help them in making decisions.”
It seems that the UOC has the wind in its favor, there will be a lot of need to train throughout life and the online option wins.
Yes, we have a very clear context of opportunity. In addition, the discourse of the need for continuous training has already been incorporated into public policies. And, indeed, it is what the UOC has been doing for 27 years. However, there are also threats. There are more and more private operators, even non-university ones, who see the business and can adapt to the needs more nimbly than we can.
What means?
We could open the academic itineraries at any time and let anyone design their tailor-made program. People do not follow linear training itineraries. There are people who start with the humanities, move on to technology, and then go to the social sciences. We have many people who come from vocational training (35% who have a degree). People come in and out when they want. And it is a shame that the academic regulations, the regulation of the ministry and the councils do not allow us more flexibility.
And doesn’t the new university law, the LOSU, improve it?
I think it makes a bet, perhaps still a little timid, in what is lifelong training, but then the regulatory provisions still continue to impose many rigidities.
What goals do you have for the UOC?
In addition to offering customizable open itineraries, we will improve everything that accompanies students and alumni, of whom we have more than 100,000. We will offer all of them tools linked to labor mobility.
Labor mobility?
We don’t know what the professional exits will be five or ten years from now, but what we can do today is train them so that, when the time comes, they know how to make the right decision. And this means, on the one hand, this flexibility in itineraries and that people can recognize which skills they have and which they lack. We are now developing tools to identify what they are good at and what the market is looking for, to make the best possible match with the company.
How will AI impact?
The challenge is to integrate them. We must make our students experts in its use because it will make them more productive, because the job market will ask them to incorporate it and it also allows us to focus on the development of more human skills. And we need them to be experts so that the AIs, which dominate this very human thing that is language, do not have absolute freedom to occupy certain spaces.
Do they affect the evaluation?
We are in a process. Currently, no university can guarantee that AIs are not being used. Although they are starting to see tools that allow them to detect their use. I believe that the important focus is to integrate learning processes.
Do you think the university should do FP?
Yes, it makes perfect sense that college is in higher grades.
