How to customise management education to narrow down the skill gap

The success of any industry largely depends on the capabilities of its manpower and, with a widening skill gap, industries worldwide are facing immense pressure. The high-end demands of the industry necessitate professionals who can take on the challenges of the corporate world and respond effectively.

Most people regard management education as a panacea for corporate and professional success. Management teaches people how to behave in organisations, as well as the nature of power, influence and leadership.

A report by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Unit Institute in 2018 indicates an unprecedented employment shortfall between 2018 and 2028. The report says that around 2.4 million jobs will go unfilled due to a mismatch between the skills required and skills owned by the talent pool capable of filling them.

Such a changing landscape is further paired with pandemic-led operations shutdown, process revamping, quickly developing technology, and outdated reputation of the industry. Business management is an essential component of any organisation and plays a critical role in its success.

Management provides the tools for success whether one aspires to be self-employed, an entrepreneur or the CEO of a company; or to work for a private company, a non-profit organisation or a government agency. Management education gives students the opportunity to sharpen their managerial skills as well as soft skills. A report byDeloitte Access Economics considers two-thirds of all jobs by 2030 will be made up of soft-skill-intensive occupations, so developing and enhancing these is key.

Today, business education is facing a paradigm shift from conventional learning to innovative learning. Increasingly, students need to be trained in real-life situations which will enable them to effectively deal with personal and professional circumstances in a disruptive and dynamic environment.

Apart from covering the regular curriculum, personality development programmes, mentoring programmes, live projects, learning through case studies, industry-academia interaction programmes, subject-focused seminars, industrial visits, and encouragement for in-house and outside extra-curricular activities are the employable skills required to prepare students as professional managers and entrepreneurs.

Customising management education is a critical decision that is continuously evolving with a dynamic business environment, new regulations, ongoing digital transformation, and the current generational shift. Keeping trust, value and growth paramount, students are looking for a more integrated, collaborative and frictionless career choice. Enrolling in the right programme is a fundamental pillar that can help students stretch their skills and knowledge base to triumph in a contemporary world.

Burning Glass Technologies software firm has conducted a series of studies for Capital One Financial Corporation on the digital skills employers demand from workers and identified that 82% of job vacancies now require digital skills of some kind.

The pervasiveness towards Finance Technology or fintech seems relevant to unlock career values and gain a competitive advantage. Many new-age educational institutions are working to meet this skill-gap demand and, therefore, offering courses like BSc in Finance, BBA with Business Analytics, BSc in Statistical Sciences, and so on. Within such courses, knowledge of finance is closely paired with emerging technologies like AI, Blockchain, cloud computing and Big Data among others.

For students who would go for a liberal arts stream, courses like graphic designing, digital marketing, animation, commercial design, photo-editing and so on are most sought after. Other than traditional career choices, students who also go for journalism, mass communication, product designing, advertising and psychology are also in good volume.

So, it goes without saying that writing, editing, business analytics and graphic designing are the new showstoppers of the career industry.

(Swaranjeet Arora is the head, School of Management, at The NorthCap University, Gurgaon.)