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RYK VAN NIEKERK: One of the greatest challenges for tertiary teaching institutions is to send students with practical skills into the working world, and for these skills to be sought after by businesses so that they can quickly appoint those people. This is a substantial shift from historically theory-focused courses.
Dr Mandi Joubert is on the line. She is executive head of academics at Eduvos. Mandi, welcome to the programme. How successful is this change in focus from theory to, let’s say, relevant skills?
MANDI JOUBERT: I think success is one question, but the conversation we need to have is about how important it is – and I think that is absolutely critical. I think various institutions and different programmes are more or less successful in terms of how they implement it in practice.
But the reality is that there was such a shift from a focus on the technical skills to soft skills that we expect today to ensure that our students are sufficiently prepared when they leave the institution and step into the working world.
RYK VAN NIEKERK: Just quickly, compare the ‘soft skills’ with the more ‘technical skills’. How do those fit together?
MANDI JOUBERT: The technical skills are typically the skills that we traditionally offer learners for a profession and qualification for which our students would prepare.
But a recent report by the World Economic Forum clearly indicated the importance of what were once termed ‘soft characteristics’ – your creativity, your innovation and your adaptability.
And then we increasingly see that although technology can support efficiency, these human-based skills such as innovation, cooperation and the long-term productivity, will be more sought-after by employers.
RYK VAN NIEKERK: You referred to technology. I assume that is one of the things making this focal shift much more practical.
MANDI JOUBERT: Absolutely. In the most recent past we were so focused on technology and the fact that all our students should initially have had computer skills and, more recently, digital skills. We therefore further developed computer skills and digital skills. But we are increasingly seeing that’s it’s not only about these technical skills.
Besides the technical skills of a profession, the technology and the digital skills, it is critical that is be combined with these human skills to adequately prepare the students for constant and dynamic change in the world of work.
RYK VAN NIEKERK: Do you regularly deal with businesses and other players in the private sector, and probably the government as well, in terms of the particular stills they are seeking?
MANDI JOUBERT: Absolutely. The industry reality at present is on how technology is changing things, and therefore higher education institutions, such as Eduvos, have such a tremendous responsibility to ensure that the curriculum with which we’re training students is in alignment with industry’s expectations and requirements.
So we are therefore sharply focused on forming very close bonds and relationships with industry regarding our programmes and faculties, and to ensure that what our students are learning is relevant to adequately prepare them for the practical side, but also that students right from the outset of their studies have exposure to the industry and the types of projects and typical expectations to which they will be exposed when starting to work.
RYK VAN NIEKERK: It is so critical that people get work with a tertiary qualification, because we have such an enormous unemployment rate, especially among the youth. Do you think there are enough institutions that have successfully implemented these changes to send more people with skills that businesses require out into the world?
MANDI JOUBERT: I think this is a discussion that we’ve had for some time and what we see in practice is that many of these young people struggle with these applied skills. They struggle to solve problems, to communicate professionally, and to adapt, as well as to use good oversight in the workplace.
We absolutely have to focus on this and prepare more students on how to apply their knowledge in both the workplace and in context, to bridge this ever-increasing gap between the classroom and the workplace.
I think it’s definitely being done, but it’s a problem that we have certainly not overcome yet if you look at the most recent employment figures.
But it is absolutely critical for the country’s economic development that this receives more attention [and] that institutions purposefully drive it rather than [see it] as a secondary priority, to address our country’s unemployment.
RYK VAN NIEKERK: Can you give us a couple of examples of how this works in practice?
MANDI JOUBERT: To give an example of how we apply this in our curricula, in our Information Technology faculty the students design and build and deploy projects, genuine digital solutions, working together with institutions and companies to understand their problems and develop solutions for their real problems, in which they are also assisted.
This expands their technical skills, but also exposes them to cooperation, adaptability as well as developing professionalism.
We can look at something like graphic design, where students similarly work with real assignments and work on international and local competitions, where they are exposed to changing demands, and to expectations that come with changing technology.
And then perhaps a final example is our new Law Clinic, where our law students receive experience with actual clients, of course under supervision, where they are also confronted with ethical judgement and problem solving …
RYK VAN NIEKERK: From a student’s perspective, how difficult is it to follow this approach compared to an institution’s traditional theoretical approach or focus, and do they need to receive other types of support so that they can successfully complete these courses?
MANDI JOUBERT: We touched on that earlier. The focus is on doing this through an integrated approach.
The approach is integrated all the way through our curriculum development, our learning modalities that we offer students, as well as absolutely through our holistic student support and programme, through our hybrid learning design for integrated learning built into the curriculum.
So that it’s not another thing that students – who often are already struggling to adapt from secondary to tertiary education – have to do over and above that. Rather it is something that they have already been exposed to from their first week in tertiary education in the classroom.
And it is something that we also incorporate in the curriculum itself, in assessment and in extracurricular activities, so that our absolute focus and aim is to train them – not for one single job, but to equip them for an entire career of change – in every aspect of their student life until they can in effect graduate.
RYK VAN NIEKERK: Mandi, thank you very much for your time. That was Dr Mandi Joubert, the Executive Head of Academics at Eduvos.
Brought to you by Eduvos.
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