RETHINKING HIGHER EDUCATION: FOCUSING ON SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES
RETHINKING HIGHER EDUCATION: FOCUSING ON SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES

Summary/Abstract: The perceived purpose of college education keeps shifting. There was a time that its purpose was seen as teaching ethics/morality/values to students. Today, the focus is on delivering skills and competencies to succeed in life as well as a career. This paper posits that the ideal university ensures that all courses regardless of discipline work together to enhance the skills of students. This ensures that students will be resilient and productive regardless of how often the nature of their work changes. The accounting major is used as an example to demonstrate how a skills-based education together with a disciplinary major produces the ideal accountant. The outdated distinction between intellectual and vocational majors is meaningless since any major can be enhanced once there is an emphasis on delivering skills together with the content.

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