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Interview with Douglas Marston, CEO of SEK Education Group. He was born in New York and studied at Tufts University, in Boston (Massachusetts). At seventeen, he left home to live and study in Germany, an experience that, in his own words, changed his life forever. He speaks four languages.
P. What role does education play in today’s world? In your opinion, what role should it play?
R. Education plays an absolutely critical role in our world, it always has. An interesting statistic from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that is appropriate for students around the world is that the average eighteen-year old student today will have eleven different jobs, and by jobs I mean career changes in their lifetime. No longer will it be the Japanese model of ‘you join a company and stay there for life’. It will be that you move through different types of careers, many of which we cannot even imagine right now. Therefore, we need to put a premium on what we teach, which is teaching students how to learn. It’s no longer you get your formal education and stop. It will be something that is ongoing over a lifetime.
The other point I would make is that the learning process starts early. One of the reasons I took the job with SEK and thought so much of it is that we are teaching kids from a very early age. It’s remarkable to see nowadays students as young as five years old learn through a coding program called ‘Scratch Junior’ the basic mode of thinking that is fundamental to computer programming. If you go through our system all the way through SEK-UCJC, we span from the very young all the way through university. That’s a unique spectrum of students, and I can’t think of many places in the world that can do that.
P. The concept of lifelong learning, as well…
R. Lifelong learning helps everyone adapt to the world as it changes. The tools for continuing learning are going to be important for students as they change careers over time.
P. Education is being debated and discussed in Spanish public life. What do you think about this growing interest? In your opinion, how should we improve education?
R. Let me first say, I’m a novice in understanding Spanish education because I’ve been involved in it for about a year. My experience is in American education, which is where I went all the way until graduate school. I have also had a good deal of time in European education because I spent two years studying in Germany and one in Switzerland. My work life has been mostly in Europe, having lived in England, France, Belgium, and Switzerland most recently. In Switzerland I was chair of the Zurich International School for thirteen years, so I’ve seen that environment for quite a long period of time. I have a good idea about Europe, but Spain is somewhat new to me.
I find Spanish education generally to be traditional, and educators and government are looking at how it should be changed. It’s a challenge everywhere in the world because educators in principle are not comfortable with change. However, in theory they are the ones entrusted to teach students how to navigate in a world of constant and dramatic change.
An interesting aside, in education we tend to relate it to our own experience, in other words how we grew up and the kind of education we had. That´s the first anchor point. The second anchor point tends to be what we see in our children, and we use their education to make decisions on what we think of as good or bad education. The first influence is probably depending on your age. Since we all have been through the education process it’s somewhat dated. With our children it may be a bit more current, but it’s still not what’s happening today. There is opinion from past practice, and it is not necessarily the best guide for education in the future.
It is on the same line of looking at industries and what has changed. There are a number of industries that have been disrupted by new technology and new ways of doing things. It’s surprising to me that education itself has not been at the forefront of disruption. It’s happening on the edges, but the basic educational system we have has been the same for almost 150 years. Disruption in education will come, the question is when. We see a great opportunity to evolve ourselves and the way we teach. This will depend on our flexibility and open-mindedness. For example, as we are recognizing that people learn in different ways, we can develop new technological tools and provide new means of access to information. The outcome is that learners may then choose the way they want to learn.
P. Now that you spent one year in Spain, is there a huge gap between Spanish education and the rest of Europe or the United States?
R. It is difficult to make generalizations, and it is not that different. If I compare Spanish education to what I see in public education in the United States, it’s certainly not more traditional than large-scale public schools in the US. If I compare it to private, independent schools, then yes, it is more traditional.
Here at SEK we focus on inquiry-based learning and utilizing technology as a learning tool; the entire IB curriculum is a great example of this.
P. You have extensive professional and personal experience in different countries. How important is an international education in your opinion?
R. Hugely important. I think my own personal experience is a good example. I grew up outside of New York City, went to public school—nothing terribly exciting—and had never travelled outside the United States. As a seventeen years old kid I was chosen to be an American Field Service exchange student, so I went to Germany for a year, not speaking a word of German, living with a family and going to a German Gymnasium. That year changed my life. It drew me to international activities, it led me to college, to graduate school, and to my life in Europe. In education we should be offering transformational experiences to our students.
If we are looking at their changing careers a variety of times, there is a great possibility that that change will occur because of the internationalization of our work. I can’t stress enough how important internationalization is in providing a platform for our students. That’s why being completely bilingual English-Spanish institutions is so important for SEK and UCJC. It’s why we need to make sure that in each of our schools we offer those opportunities to create such transformational experiences. These experiences might include participating in SEKMUN. It might be creating a friendship with a classmate from a different culture. It could also include studying abroad for two weeks each year as part of a UCJC international degree program. There’s so many different things that can be a trigger for creating that change. We just need to make sure that we have ample ones available so that each student finds one that opens their eyes to the world.
P. You have collaborated with SEK Education Group for some time as senior advisor of the International Advisory Board. What led you to accept the position of CEO when they offered you it?
R. A couple of things. One, I’ve been very impressed with everyone I’ve come in contact with. I think the platform we have of nine schools and a university, dealing with students from infants through graduate students is spectacular. It is an opportunity that is rarely offered to anyone, let alone to me. It has been like going into a candy store after hours and having the ability to look in all the drawers, open the jars, and see the wonderful things that are there.
There are several examples. We do the academic training for the school-age Real Madrid football and basketball players. That is a huge opportunity that follows our ideal to join sports and academics through the concept of wellness. The same goes with the Sports Academy and our programs for high performing athletes; we strive to develop well-rounded and healthy students. Moreover, this upcoming fall we plan on exploring potential collaborative projects at the schools and university level with one of the best nutrition schools in the world, the Friedman School at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, where I am chair of the International Board of Advisors.
A second example is that we have within the SEK Group a Swedish-built brigantine that is moored in Valencia called ‘la Goleta Cervantes de Saavedra.’ It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to see how we can bring education to the high seas.
Thirdly we have a facility just outside Megève, France, SEK-Les Alpes, that offers the chance for us to look at outdoor activities and expand how we provide outdoor and experiential education. One of the transformational experiences we may be able to give our students is that they take outdoor education and leadership training courses at SEK-Les Alpes or while sailing on la Goleta, or they spend a semester in Dublin or in one of our other schools.
The examples go on in terms of international things that we can do. At UCJC we have four new bachelor’s degrees, offering bilingual Spanish-English education. Each one has a significant international experience attached to it. One group last year went to China, another group to the United States—again offering things that are useful for future careers and providing international experience as part of their academic training.
P. What lines of action do you expect and wish to put in place at SEK Education Group?
R. We are almost finished with our three-year strategic plan, the first time the group has ever done such a detailed effort. The plan concentrates in three areas: our schools, UCJC, and international expansion, as we think Latin America offers a tremendous opportunity for growing SEK schools and programs related to UCJC. You will see more in the fall as we roll out these plans.
