WISE hosts forum in Madrid

The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), the leading global initiative for innovation and collaboration in education, has launched WISE@Madrid: ‘Imagining the Future of Education’,  organised in partnership with Banco Santander.
The forum brings together diverse leaders in education, business, and policy-making to discuss the future of education, including the role of technology, 21st century skills, the role of higher education in fostering economic growth and applying design thinking to reforming school systems.
The forum opened with speeches by HE Sheikha Hind bint Hamad al-Thani, vice chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation and Ana Bot?n, executive chairman of Banco Santander. Both reaffirmed their organisations’ commitment to supporting quality education worldwide and leveraging their organisations’ standing to unite key stakeholders from the Mena region and Europe to ensure that education remains a priority on their agendas.
Since 2013, WISE and Banco Santander have partnered to foster and improve education opportunities globally through a growing number of complementary activities. Notably, Santander has extended its support to the WISE Accelerator programme, which provides tailored mentorship to promising education start-ups.  
Santander also actively contributes to the WISE Learners’ Voice programme, which engages committed young people in addressing global education challenges. Among other things, Santander provides the learners with quality faculty and mentors, and hosts one of the two annual intensive residential sessions at its Madrid headquarters.
WISE serves as a platform to provide numerous collaboration opportunities for key education stakeholders and to foster innovative solutions.
In May 2016, WISE gathered prominent Spanish education authorities to discuss the potential of leadership in education to create the conditions for successful innovation.
“Our world is rapidly evolving, and education systems need to adapt accordingly. It is for this reason that we, at Qatar Foundation, are working hard alongside our partners to find innovative solutions to reimagine the academic landscape. Together, we want to ensure that today’s young men and women are equipped with the skills and knowledge to excel in a global environment,” HE Sheikha Hind told the opening session of the WISE@Madrid forum.
She continued, “The WISE-Santander partnership reflects our dedication to finding solutions to global education challenges. And we are delighted to have a strong ally in Banco Santander as we work together to achieve shared objectives.”
The next biennial global WISE summit in Doha will take place from November 14-16 this year. WISE also organises smaller regional forums featuring expert speakers in a wide range of fields and sectors to address key education issues.
The first of these WISE@ gatherings took place last year in Tunis and in Beijing, co-organised with local partners. The WISE@Madrid forum is the first initiative of the series in Europe.