Keigo Takeuchi

Keigo’s parents were teachers, and so it was natural that he chose a teacher training course at university. However, as a student, his focus shifted away from school teaching and towards other aspects of education. After graduation from university, he worked for an educational publisher and a television station for a number of years, in charge of new business development, developing educational programs for children, and running an entertainment-type show that helped viewers learn English. This experience gave him a huge advantage when he moved into teaching, and meant he was able to bring lessons from the commercial world.

Since then, Keigo’s teaching career has been focused on introducing skills, software and approaches from the creative and media industries, including coding, web design and app creation. Although today's global society needs problem-solving skills and flexible, responsive thinking, Japan's Generation Z do not see themselves as "creative", with only 8% of students saying that they did according to a 2016 Adobe survey. Keigo’s experience of shooting with professional cameras, editing, and using design tools adds to the range of skills available to his students – and having experienced all parts of the business value chain (including planning, purchasing, promotion, sales, management and accounting), he is able to offer valuable direction to students wanting to enter the field.

In 2018, Keigo introduced the AdobeCC suite in school and launched graphic design classes using Illustrator and Photoshop. By using the same tools as adult professionals, students have more scope to build skills and experience, present their work, and gain recognition. In design contests, they compete on equal terms with university students, and have won special prizes in contests.

In 2019, Keigo was appointed as one of the first 12 Adobe Education Leaders in Japan. He believes that in Japan, the popularity of teaching as a career is now declining significantly, which is why he also volunteers as a job-hunting support for university students who want to become teachers. With the Global Teacher Prize funds, Keigo would create a teacher internship platform for university students, so that they can make well-informed decisions about pursuing teaching as a career – thereby increasing the number of young people who want to become teachers and preventing mismatches. In addition, he would also create a platform where companies and schools can work together to design educational programmes.