‘Rethink curricular to bridge gap with industry’

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• kweks 8 years ago

  This call has been going on by all for a long time. How can we expect the old guards on duty to bring in new rules to make them redundant? We should get consultants outside the system to redesign and lead the change.

  This call has been going on by all for a long time. How can we expect the old guards on duty to bring in new rules to make them redundant? We should get consultants outside the system to redesign and lead the change.

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• Tekonline.org 8 years ago

  As the name implies, university education is primarily about providing students with UNIVERSAL knowledge and skills.
  
  And there are reasons for that:
  
  (1) For example, it is hard to predict what the dominant technologies ...
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  As the name implies, university education is primarily about providing students with UNIVERSAL knowledge and skills.
  
  And there are reasons for that:
  
  (1) For example, it is hard to predict what the dominant technologies would be, by the time students graduate.
  
  Most new technologies take time to be adopted by industry, but a few have immediate impact. Best examples are the internet and smartphones, which seem to have changed the world overnight!
  
  Another good example is the automotive industry, which is currently undergoing a technological revolution. Imagine training students to assemble automotive vehicles based ONLY on the internal combustion engine. What happens when the only job opportunities are in the electric car industry? Or they can only find openings in factories that assemble cars that use fuel-cells?
  
  So, students in that field are taught the GENERAL principles of powering vehicles. In other words, students need to acquire ADAPTABLE skills and knowledge.
  To oversimplify, instead of teaching students how to hammer in a nail to join two pieces of wooden material, you rather teach students the general techniques for binding two objects - including hammer/nail, glue, velcro, putty, etc.
  
  (2) Internships (called "attachments" in Ghana) are mandatory.
  
  It is no accident that this is a hardcore requirement in medicine. Four years of medical school would NOT make a physician. Residency ("internships" in the British system), IS what makes the medical graduate become a physician in earnest.
  
  So, priority should be given to providing most graduates with internships, paid or unpaid. No university in the world can produce a graduate who is a PERFECT fit for an organization from day one of employment.
  And it wouldn't be practical for any university to have thousands of programs for the thousands of specific industries and establishments.
  
  (3) Teach CORE skills.
  As justified in points (1) and (2), CORE skills are needed to make graduates adaptable to any situation.
  So rather than teaching students about the HIV virus and AIDS, you teach them the science of VIROLOGY so that they can handle ANY outbreak, whether EBOLA or SARS.
  
  (4) Examine what universities in advanced countries are doing.
  Send Ghana's tertiary education experts to say, University of Tokyo, to see how the curriculum is structured. Do they prepare students to specifically work at Toyota?
  I'm sure your findings would be quite illuminating!

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