Specific or well rounded skills?

A Bachelors degree in the United States generally gives you a broad spectrum of knowledge for the most part (depending on major), it is generally not until a master’s program do students gain those specific skills desired by companies (we hope they anyway).

An interesting article today:

“Broad Education vs. Industry-Specific Skills”

“A large majority of the American public and nearly three-quarters of business leaders say it is more important for job candidates to be well-rounded with a range of abilities than to have industry-specific skills, two new national surveys released Tuesday show”.

“A July survey of 263 hiring managers and an August poll of 1,000 American adults conducted by FTI Consulting on behalf of Northeastern University show that majorities of the public and business leaders value broadly applicable skills like written communication and problem-solving over specific skills obtained through applied training”.

“Still, the poll found that Americans overwhelmingly want colleges and universities to focus on integrating practical experience, such as internships, into their curriculums. In large numbers, both business leaders and the general public agreed that students with internship and other work-related experience tend to be more successful in their careers”.

Read the rest: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/09/18/poll-most-americans-and-business-leaders-say-graduates-should-be-well-rounded

 

This is quite interesting information, and in today’s changing economy, this might make sense.

What are your thoughts?

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam