Debate on the relationship between education and competitiveness in Congreso ILALE 2012

Santo Domingo. With the purpose of creating spaces for dialogue on essential topics of current education in Latin America, the Latin American Institute of Educational Leadership (ILALE), of NOVA Southeastern University and the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) together with the Catholic University of Technology Cibao (UCATECI), Dominican-American University (UNICDA), and Action for Education (Educa) held for the ninth consecutive year the ILALE 2012 Congress, where they meet during the 21 days and June 22 prominent professionals from different countries, to discuss educational issues and exchange experiences about the future of education at all levels. 

The meeting that takes place at the Hilton Hotel in Santo Domingo, has as its central theme "Education for Competitiveness: From Proposal to Action", and is sponsored by the Pedro Henríquez Ureña National University (UNPHU), Catholic University from Santo Domingo, Universidad del Caribe (Unicaribe), Universidad Católica del Este (Ucade) and Universidad Católica Nordestana (UCNE.); and the PREAL, INICIA Foundation, Banco BHD, USAID, CEMEX Dominicana, AES Foundation and Brugal Foundation institutions.

It is based on lectures given by renowned specialists, panels of experts that will be developed with the purpose of deepening discussions on the topics and presentations of novel experiences related to the theme of the Congress that are being developed in countries of the region.

Among the international exponents are Renato Opertti, Eduardo Velez, Marcos Antonio Chavez and Manuel Figueroa.

Opertti is coordinator of the Programs for Curriculum Capacity Building and Political Dialogue, and Program Specialist, Professional Grade 4 at UNESCO's International Bureau of Education (IBE, Geneva); Vélez has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Illinois and is an international consultant working on education issues in East Asia and the Pacific and in Latin America and the Caribbean.

For his part, Manuel Figueroa is a businessman in the area of ​​Virtual Educational Resources and Dr. Marcos Chávez is the Director of the Distance Education Department of the Autonomous University of Nayarit (UAN), Mexico.

ILALE 2012 also has the participation of national speakers such as Mr. Andrés Van Der Horst, Executive Director of the National Council for Competitiveness, Elena Viyella de Paliza, Dominican businesswoman, former president of CONEP, Rolando Guzmán, Rector of Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), and Ramón Flores, National and International Consultant in Education.

Between the conferences they are: "Policies and strategies to make of the base education for the competitiveness", "Curriculum and formation for the competitiveness" and "the Education like Factor of the Competitiveness". The program is completed with two panels, one on the business perspective of education as a factor of competitiveness and one last on the academic perspective of education as a factor of competitiveness.

Among the main objectives of ILALE 2012 is to debate proposals to face the challenge of education in the knowledge society and to open paths for social competitiveness and the well-being of people; discuss the factors to be considered so that education at all levels responds to the demands of competitiveness; and learn about public policies that have been translated into concrete plans and projects for strengthening education to promote competitiveness.