Universities must take action to prepare the incoming generation of students for today’s workplace.
There are multiple driving forces changing the shape of work and the required skills for the future – rapid technological advancements, social demographic shifts, personal purpose and responsibility, changes in business and economy, and sustainability.
That’s according to Samit Lotlikar, Institutional Research Manager at Zayed University, who chaired a panel on New Skills and the New-Collar Worker at the QS Higher Ed Summit: Middle East 2024.
In response to these changes, businesses are increasingly bringing training and professional learning in-house. The arrival of the term ‘new-collar workforce‘ – those with the skills and capabilities to take on traditionally graduate positions without a university qualification – is also having an impact on the way skills are being perceived in the workplace.
Employers are increasingly aware of this untapped talent, driving higher education institutions to innovate and consider their role in actualising skills-first learning for the incoming generation.
Adapting quickly to a skills-first approach
The idea of skills-based learning is not new, says Dr Baishakhi Taylor, Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at New York University Abu Dhabi. In fact, “the idea of people joining some sort of mentorship or apprenticeship and finding a master to learn from has been part of the dialogue dating back centuries,” she said, speaking on the panel at the Summit in the United Arab Emirates.
“Once again, we’re at a moment of needing to adapt our teaching and learning style to meet the needs of the next group of learners joining us. We’re all in agreement that change is needed, but the transition is taking longer than any of us would like.”
For Dr Taylor, adapting at pace must consider different pathways and models to be truly diverse and inclusive. “The conversation now is about how we create those pathways and make some of those changes happen faster,” she added.
Engaging industry in curriculum design
While universities have become familiar with engaging students in the curriculum design process, Dr Senthil Nathan, Managing Director of Edu Alliance and former Deputy Vice Chancellor for Higher Colleges of Technology, feels that universities have more to do to engage industry in this process.
Dr Nathan said: “Industry knows what it needs. What needs to happen is that universities must rethink the industry experience that academics have when applying for roles. I recently scanned LinkedIn to find assistant professor positions in the United Arab Emirates. Of the 83 positions advertised, not one asked for industry experience.
“It may be more realistic to look towards new ‘outside’ players like IBM, Microsoft, Google, Coursera and 1Mentor to lead this change. Governments in the Middle East will also have to play a key role in mandating industries to collaborate with universities on large-scale co-op degree programmes and lead the assessment of skills and standardising micro-credentials.”
At the QS India Summit 2024, the value of nurturing academia-industry partnerships was a prominent discussion. Professor Ian White, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bath, said: “Partnerships enable the University to ensure that it better serves society – through the kinds of research that we do, the curricula that we teach and the way that we envisage the relationship between academic learning and society at large.”
Thinking beyond the four-year degree
Carl Manlan is Vice President of Inclusive Impact & Sustainability for Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Visa. As an industry expert on the panel, he said that while a university degree is an indication that a graduate has acquired a certain level of skills, “the real question is how do we value skills that have not been vetted by an academic institution? We’re aware of a growing pool of talent that have never engaged in higher education but are very successful businesspeople.”
Dr Taylor said: “The idea of a new-collar worker ties to the idea of lifelong learning and a lot of the discussion over the past two days at the QS Higher Ed Summit: Middle East 2024 has been about how we contribute to that and start to move away from confining individuals to the four-year degree.
“We all have an obligation, almost eight billion of us on this planet, to think about how we leave the world as a better place than we inherited it. I don’t think there is a linear path to that, and new challenges are bound to come up.
“As part of that thinking, we must ask if a four-year degree is the only way forward. Does that mean the entire concept of higher education is going to change? I don’t think so. I think we have a lot to contribute and a lot to take into consideration so that we can adapt.”
Reframing the curriculum-vitae
When asked whether today’s in-demand skills need to come from university programmes or can be developed through other learning methods, the panellists were unified in their beliefs that there is value in both.
Manlan said: “It must be a combination. Skills development starts earlier than university, but what I think we need to solve is the assessment part. If I don’t have a certificate from a recognised institution that says I have acquired this specific set of skills, how do we translate that in industry?”
Even when recruiting graduates with a university degree, understanding exactly what skills have been learned, and how, is difficult to measure.
Dr Nathan said: “That’s actually the bottom line. Universities encourage students to list their skills on their CV but I think the world is clueless as to how these are assessed and how much knowledge applicants have.
Dr Taylor added: “The phrase curriculum vitae literally translates from its Latin roots as life script, so how can we expand the boundaries and ideas of what makes you successful, really show what you know and consider how we assess real competencies, especially around soft skills.”
Equity and inclusion at the heart
There was collective acknowledgement that there isn’t one solution to actualise a skills-first learning for the new generation of workers and that equity and inclusion must play a central role in developing various paths that ensure everyone’s learning needs are met.
“That’s something we need to consider in assessment too, because if we all learn in different ways, we cannot use the same assessment model to measure everyone’s outcomes,” said Dr Taylor.
One solution broached by Manlan was the introduction of coaching for students. Beyond the standard careers services, coaching can offer students an individualistic approach to their career and skills development and ensure that all students receive the care and support they need regardless of their background or learning method.
Manlan said: “Coaching has to be able to open the mind in a way that the degree is helping to structure students’ thinking.”
Dr Taylor added: “I also want to highlight the importance of coaching both inside and outside of the classroom. We are exactly three years out from welcoming the next generation, Generation Alpha, into our institutions.
“If we can really make some changes in these three years, not just to students’ careers but for their mental health, we will be getting somewhere. There are challenges everywhere, including the climate crisis, financial struggles, world conflict and the impact of social media. How can we build the support to produce a whole, well person who can flourish and thrive?”