Gavin Dykes

Gavin Dykes is Program Director for the Education World Forum, and the Asian Summit on Education and Skills. These are annual meetings for education policy makers. Gavin’s responsibilities include setting the themes, agenda, and arranging the program. In January 2018, 80 Ministers attended the Education World Forum, and more than 90 countries were represented. He is co-founder and chair of debates at Education Fast Forward. He also serves on Advisory Boards for Ed-Tech organizations, and is an advisor to the “Educate – Better Edtech Better Learning” Project in London. He has worked in consultancy and advisory roles for the OECD, UNESCO, the World Bank and for governments, agencies and foundations in countries from Ireland to India, and from Jordan to the US. He contributes to teaching in the Master’s of Education Entrepreneurship program at the Graduate School of Education of the University of Pennsylvania.

Gavin began his education career teaching and nurturing student skills for civil engineering, before developing innovative vocational and higher education programs associated with business, management, information technology and sports. These programs ranged from life-long learning skills development programs aiding return to work, to a Foundation Degree in E-commerce Technologies and, for example, a Masters in Facilities Management. His role included navigating accreditation for these programs through UK bodies including the University of Surrey and the Open University. He moved on to work on strategy and policy for innovation in education and held roles in government departments and agencies associated with technology adoption, learning and skills.

Among OECD initiatives, Gavin moderated the TALIS launch in Tokyo, the first Global Education Industry Summit in Helsinki and the Skills Summit in Bergen. Gavin is co-author of “Aspire High – Imagining Tomorrow’s School today (2017)” and co-author of the World Bank publication “Building and Sustaining National Educational Technology Agencies: Lessons, Models and Case Studies from Around the World (2017)”