DAP’s Certificate Course on Futures Thinking

Developing the capacity to imagine by “using the future” to create alternatives and preferred futures can be a powerful tool to spark innovation, manage change, and social transformation.

Corporate leaders, policymakers, strategic planners, governance experts, academics, advocates, and activists have utilized Futures thinking tools and methods to improvise, experiment, conceptualize and invent ideas and things that do not exist yet to transform the future today.

The outcome of Futures thinking intelligence system or capacity includes the development of new questions, new knowledge, concepts, and insights to inform design, public policy, governance, risk management, innovation, decision-making, etc.

According to UNESCO, the lack of Futures literacy impedes us from discovering, creating new ideas, and navigating unknown terrains. Futures thinking enables people and organizations to identify and re-imagine the future (Miller, 2018).

The top leadership school in the country, the Development Academy of the Philippines Graduate School of Public and Development Management (DAP-GSPDM) recently launched its certificate course on Futures thinking.

Dubbed as “Transforming Futures Praxis towards an Anticipatory Society” the launch was keynoted by Dr. Marcus Bussey, Senior Lecturer in History and Futures Studies at the University of Sunshine Coast Australia, and Senator Pia Cayetano, PhilFutures and Committee Chair of the Senate Committee on SDGs, Innovation and Futures Thinking. They both accentuated the importance of Futures thinking in governance and public policymaking in the twenty-first century.

DAP’s Senior Vice-President and Dean of the DAP-GSPDM Dr. Lizan Perante-Calina said: “this certificate course is a remarkable step in democratizing Futures thinking in the country, particularly in the public sector.” This certificate course hopes to strengthen the anticipatory capacity of our lawmakers, governance, and public policy systems and processes.

CEF’s Chief Futurist and DAP’s Futures Thinking Certificate Course Supervising Fellow Shermon Cruz discussed the rationale, objectives, course design, and the skills and competency that could be gained by completing the course.

Prof. Shermon said that the course offers to:

• introduce the origins, critical theories, and concepts of Futures thinking. 

• instruct how to use foundational but powerful FT tools and methodologies through the PhilFutures Impact Foresight Framework.

• discover what works in Futures thinking intelligence and practice through case studies and expert knowledge.

• Develop your skill set to be Futures ready.

• Increase your foresight competency to use the future to innovate and anticipate change to transform the future today.

He said that “DAP’s approach was designed to provide course participants a safe learning space and to allow them to have an open, non-judgmental, collaborative, gamified, and balanced learning environment. The course integrates critical thinking, systems thinking, creative thinking, design, experimentation, imagination, and strategic innovation in an emergent, integrative, and empowering way.

The course approach draws inspiration from the instructors and experts who combined decades of experience in Futures thinking, governance, public policy, and strategic management consulting and had integrated tried and tested tools and methodologies to engage the whole body, mind, and spirit into futures work.

Dr. Shunjie Jie, Director of the Graduate Institute of Futures Studies at Tamkang University, and Dr. Anita Kelleher, Director of the Designer Futures Australia briefly shared and gave congratulatory remarks for this course.

For more about this course please visit DAP’s Facebook page