The four-year alliance between the Institute for the Future of Education at Tecnológico de Monterrey and UNESCO was signed at the IFE Conference 2026 on January 29.
It forms part of the university’s broader mission to transform universities in Latin America into lifelong learning hubs and to close persistent skills gaps across the region. The three-day event also saw the institute launch two ‘Big Bold Initiatives’ (BBIs) to these ends.
“We need to extend learning from traditional learners to a wider segment of our population. We’re living in very volatile times, and things are moving very quickly, so everybody needs to keep learning for life,” said Michael Fung, executive director of the Institute for the Future of Education (IFE).
Between UNESCO and IFE, the partnership will take best practices from around the world and combine them with research by the institute to make them relevant to the Latin American region. It will be implemented across the 67 UNESCO Learning Cities in Latin America.
“We work at the national level regarding education policies and formal systems, but national policies take a lot of time to come down,” said Raul Valdes-Cotera, UIL chief program coordinator.
“In Latin America, more than 80% of the population live in cities,” said Valdes-Cotera, explaining that the coalition aimed to implement lifelong learning policies at the city level, engaging a broad range of stakeholders across state governments, the private sector, NGOs and academia.
“When you can get everyone together in one breakfast, you can find real solutions and move faster into action,” he said.
Fung explained the vision to transform universities into lifelong learning hubs, and crucially, to extend this to the wider community.
We’re living in very volatile times, and things are moving very quickly, so everybody needs to keep learning for life
Michael Fung, Institute for the Future of Education, Tecnológico de Monterrey
The agreement aims to boost the productivity of older people in their jobs and daily lives, support professionals already in the workplace and help informal workers acquire the skills to move into formal employment, he explained.
What’s more, two BBIs regarding the future of Latin American and Caribbean universities and regional skills ecosystems were launched during the conference, as leaders aim to boost educational quality and form deeper ties between universities and civil society.
The first BBI establishes a framework to help universities assess educational quality and identify gaps in key areas such as research and community impact, technology-enabled education, and faculty and student support.
Launching the initiative, IFE associate director José Escamilla emphasised the flexibility of the framework, intended as a ‘playbook’ to be applied across different institutions, contexts, cities and disciplines – reflecting the diversity of the region.
Escamilla and Fung said they hoped approximately 1,000 universities would be using the model by 2035, with several of them serving as regional and global benchmarks.
“The region faces unprecedented challenges that demand deep, large-scale transformations that can no longer be postponed,” said Escamilla.
He outlined ambitious targets of the second BBI which focusses on aligning education with Latin American training providers, employers, governments and civil societies, aiming to support one million workers and up to 50,000 employers in its first five years.
The program’s funding structure would also depend on regional contexts and needs, said leaders, with industry clusters, local governments, associations of universities or private sources acting as potential funding sources across the region.
“Where state governments have recognised industry needs, we will engage with them on what the priorities are. Based on the gaps we identify we can work with education, industry and training entities to close those gaps,” said Fung.
“Where the state governments are not as forward looking, we would start with the industrial clusters and go through a similar process,” he explained, highlighting the importance of listening to the motivations of all stakeholders.
