BUENOS AIRES – Senior education officials from the G-20 nations on Wednesday met in the western Argentine city of Mendoza to analyze the different educational models necessary to push society forward and prepare it for the jobs of the future.

“Without education, there is no development of human skills,” Argentine Education Minister Alejandro Finocchiaro said during the opening ceremony. “There is no human development. And without it, there is no possibility for sustainable development on Earth.”

The event marks the first time that the G-20 Summit includes a ministerial-level meeting on education.

Among the attendees were Themis Christophidou, European Commission director-general for education; Yoshimasa Hayashi, Japan’s minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology; US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Audrey Azoulay, head of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

The representatives will hand a declaration with recommendations to participants of the G-20 Leaders’ Summit, which will take place in Buenos Aires in late November.