Should Universities Promote Skill Focused Curricula

People’s skills are most helpful in getting them to run. Skills help them to rebuild and revitalise in the market. And save the earth through sustainability. Students can be productive sources in certain situations. They can be a source through access to modern technology. As well as personal competence abilities. A mind full of facts and data is far less valuable. The most essential thing is to have a wide range of abilities. And a high degree of expertise in every area. Thus, Skill-focused learning is far better than knowledge-focused learning.

The fast-paced world today demands skills more than knowledge. Technology and intelligence drive the world today. Human skills, digital and big data are the new norm. The workforce demands more skill-based employees than knowledge-focused. Thus, it has become a need to incorporate a skill-focused curriculum in Universities.

 Achieving sustainable means for student employment is the aim of Education. It is an important aim of university education. But the impact of new digital tools seems to affect this aim. The managing director of APAC (India), Raghav Gupta, spoke at a Summit. He stressed the importance of skill-focused curricula. According to him, a skill-focused curriculum in Universities will prepare future employees. (The 21st-century curriculum and the future of skills-based education, 2021).

But the question still remains unanswered. Should Universities promote skill-focused Curricula? Or should they follow the same old traditional curricula for teaching? This article will answer the question of Universities should promote skill-focused curricula.

What is a Skills-Focused Curriculum?

A skill-focused curriculum is practical. It uses the simple idea of ‘learning while doing.’ It also applies in real-life contexts. As a result, it differs from the traditional concept of focusing on the features of a person. Knowledge-based learning, on the other side, places a higher emphasis on literature.

Education dissertation help is crucial, but skill is necessary. Now is the time to apply practical skills instead of bookish knowledge. Bookish knowledge and rote learning determine limited success. But skill-focused learning revolves around applying a learned method. And today, we need it for survival.

The economy needs skills more than knowledge. It serves as a country’s backbone. Thus, a skill-focused curriculum would give rise to superior learners. Since they are not only learning but updating their knowledge.

Should Universities Promote Skill-Focused Curriculum?

The answer is yes. Universities should promote and apply skill-focused learning. But to install a skill-focused curriculum, the framework has to change. When students feel they have more control over their learning, they perform better. Students can also decide if they want to work alone or in a team. A skill-focused curriculum makes knowledge creators rather than rote learners.

The Universities’ curriculum in England is not quite skill-focused. Michael Young stressed on the new National Curriculum in England. This shows that the curriculum prevalent in England is not skill-focused.

Ideas on what knowledge they should give, affect the actions of teachers. And the actions of students as well. It also affects the whole curriculum timetable. Unnecessary changes in the National Curriculum also reduce resources. The growing human knowledge also ignores the major developments in other domains.

Contrary to this, many criticize the huge expansion of human knowledge. Some critics say that focus on core knowledge has deteriorated. While the ‘skill-focused curriculum is more emphasized in education. But, this notion is against the principles of psychological theory. Social psychology says that schemas keep updating in an individual’s mind. Schemas help to identify and organize knowledge. And that knowledge is what determines identity and competence. In simple terms, knowledge leads to skills and one cannot overlook it. Thus, critics cannot separate knowledge from skills.

How Can Universities Promote Skill-Focused Curricula?

To move this Skill-focused model forward, institutes have to take continuous steps. Management must take some important steps from Universities, businesses, and the government. These include:

Industry must step forward and turn college labs into production lines. This enables students to learn about the practical life cycle of work. To do this, the corporate sector needs to construct factory floors. And micro- workshops at the university site.

Universities must be open to embracing a curriculum that includes a lot of hands-on experience. As well as a system in which students may have real-world practice half of the week. And only one day of classroom sessions for topics. As a result, Universities must concentrate on the entire chain of teaching. They should also focus on teaching techniques. Thus, this means a change in curriculum and method of teaching.

In a summit conference, Raghav Gupta noted how skill-focused curriculum became a need. In 2019, technological, informational and professional skills rose. (Dahiya, 2021). Yet, in the year 2020, these skills came to the surface. How do people interact with one another? How can one handle mental health? And how can stress be overcome? All these abilities surfaced in the last couple of years. Thus, Universities should promote skill-focused learning. It has become a new norm.

To ensure the application of the mentioned criteria, we need government policies. Government policies will allow education and businesses to establish. It will refine the infrastructure and curriculum. To achieve this, the new curriculum strategy should include attractive benefits. It should also introduce internship programmes. This will enable retaining talented individuals in the corporate world. Also, Universities should promote skill-focused curricula along with knowledge-based learning. This way a blend of both would benefit students in their practical life.

Universities can be more innovative in their curriculum design. They can do so by adapting lectures to industrial tasks. They can use high-tech gadgets as well to give a practical experience to students.

Whatever the Universities’ curriculum is, fate favours the inventive. Thinking outside the box will help graduates in their professional paths. It is always wise to use a skill-focused and knowledge-focused approach together. Universities should promote skill-focused curricula without ignoring knowledge. The two go hand in hand but ignoring the skill aspect completely won’t work. Thus, educational institutes should use government policies to support the application of skill-focused curricula. After all, the world functions on the principles of technology right now.