In an era of rapid technological transformation, tertiary students need to develop relevant skills for their future world of work. To understand how some universities may be preparing them we designed a study with a questionnaire and in-depth interviews. The aim was to investigate how education leaders perceived their students’ levels of competence and the impact technology has on them and their education. The survey instrument included 13 skill groups from the McKinsey & Company 2021 framework for the future of work. This paper focuses on findings from the three digital skill groups: digital fluency and citizenship, software use and development, and understanding digital systems. Through purposeful sampling, 14 educators in Southeast Asian universities participated in the study. Frequency analysis was conducted on the survey data. The interview data was analyzed through repeated coding and thematic comparisons. Respondents were asked to which level of digital competence (beginning, fluent, adaptive, accomplished) their students could develop when studying in the university. More than half believed that their students’ competence could be developed to the adaptive level for all three skill groups while the rest believed that some of the skills would have to be developed in the workplace. In the interviews, the participants raised several concerns about the role of technology, and some emphasized the need to develop stronger human qualities in students to thrive in a technology-dominated future. The participants’ responses were compared geographically and further compared with insights gleaned from existing literature on these topics in Southeast Asia.

Authors:
Christine C. M. Goh, National Institute of Education, Singapore
Karen W. Y. Toh, National Institute of Education, Singapore

About the Presenter(s)
Christine C. M. Goh is Chair Professor of Education at the National Institute of Education, NTU Singapore. Christine’s academic interests are oracy in bilingual education and education for human flourishing and future-readiness for students and teachers.

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