What is Adobe’s vision within Education?
Adobe’s vision is to empower students with future digital and creativity skills – we want to be recognised as a valued and trusted educational partner among schools, school leaders and teachers.
We’re partnering with schools to support their digital strategies and develop the digital readiness capabilities for their students and their teachers, which is even more relevant especially now in this COVID-19 environment.
We also understand that ‘human skills’ such as creativity, critical thinking, complex-problem solving and creative thinking are recognised as essential for tomorrow’s workforce. There is a growing need to enable creativity in schools, as supported by the recent Durham Commission on Creativity and Education and the OECD’s report on Fostering Students’ Creativity and Critical Thinking.
Considering the importance of developing digital capacities, future skills and creativity in schools, we know from experience that Adobe’s Creative Cloud is successfully supporting and complementing the teaching and learning experience. As a result, we want to partner and support school leaders, governments and policymakers who are working to enable and equip the current generation for what’s coming tomorrow.
And, as education is constantly changing and now disrupted, schools are going to rely on trusted partners who can adapt and respond to those changes. I think that’s more relevant than ever and we’re confident that our customers are recognising how we’re responding to the current situation that we’re facing. Reassuring them that we can respond and support them today, and as they navigate a new reality going forward.
What obstacles do you foresee in achieving this vision?
One of the biggest obstacles we face is having educators see us more than just the PDF company or for creative professionals. We’re proud of our existing reputation and what we’ve achieved as a global industry leader across every sector. We are working to expand the awareness around our Creative Cloud applications and how they allow educators to introduce an exciting and engaging experience, while helping students develop key skills and capabilities – regardless of subject matter.
Additionally, students will also become proficient using Adobe applications that are used every day across industries in various professions that will also increase their future employability.
I think one of the other obstacles that we’re trying to work on is teacher adoption. One of the things that we let school partners know is that the level of experience you have with Adobe doesn’t matter. We offer a variety of free resources to help educators learn how to use and apply Adobe’s applications and be inspired about the possibilities available for their classroom. You can start at a very introductory level and work your way up, developing your skill level – regardless of experience, content or grade level.
