Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Teaching, Learning and Education
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Transforming Education for the 21st Century: Enhancing Graduate Employability through Curriculum Revamp
Brahim Machaal
ABSTRACT:
This paper reports the findings of a research on the extent to which the curriculum of a bachelor program at a Moroccan university equips students with the 21st century skills to future-proof their employability. The study made use of curriculum evaluation to examine the study program as well as questionnaires and interviews to gauge teachers’ and students’ opinions about the curriculum. While the results of the curriculum evaluation revealed that most course descriptions didn’t align with developing 21st century skills such as creativity, problem solving and digital literacy, the findings from questionnaires and interviews suggest that the majority of the students consider that the bachelor program did not prepare them adequately for the job market. Faculty members, on the other hand, believe that their courses offered students sufficient opportunities to develop future-proofing employability skills, and suggested that the failure to acquire these skills could be attributed to the recurrent absenteeism and the poor attendance records of the students. The overall findings suggest that teachers need to adopt interactive and engaging instruction methods, and that students need to be trained in how to engage their metacognitive skills – including selfmotivation, responsibility and autonomy – in order to cultivate commitment to independent and lifelong learning and develop resilience towards the unpredictable job market. Last but not least, the curriculum of the Bachelor program needs an urgent revamp to include key 21st century skills and content conducive to future-proofing graduates for employment.
keywords: Curriculum revamp, graduate employability, 21st century skills