The fourth area of potential opportunity identified by Drucker is industry and market changes. If it were not enough for institutions to respond to the changing audience, the subjects that are taught are also rapidly changing. The lines between disciplines are becoming increasingly blurred, and the rate of increase of knowledge, especially in the areas of science and technology, is in a perpetual state of acceleration. Added to that are global influences in all areas.
Business and industry have been vocal about the quality of graduates entering the workforce. A 2006 publication titled Educating Engineers for the 21st Century: The Industry View called for engineers to have a sound knowledge of the engineering fundamentals within their discipline as well as social and interpersonal skill sets including communication, team-working, and business skills (Spinks, Silburn, & Birchill, p. 3). Charles Vest (2007), president emeritus of MIT, called for engineering graduates to “write and communicate well, think about ethics and social responsibility, conceive and operate systems of great complexity within a framework of sustainable development and be prepared to live and work as global citizens”.
The National Leadership Council for Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP; Crutcher, O’Brien, Corigan, & Schneider, 2007), an initiative sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, identified analogous aims and outcomes for all students, regardless of discipline, outcomes necessary for survival in a twenty-first-century workforce. In preparing graduates for the twenty-first-century workforce, we need to take into consideration the features of that workforce. Kalantizis and Cope (2002) make the observation that “a division of labour into its minutest deskilled components is replaced by ‘multi-skilled’ allround workers who are flexible enough to be able to do complex and integrated work”. New workers will be what they call “portfolio workers,” whose strength is not in career stability and content knowledge but in range and versatility. The learning culture that will foster a transformation to the needs of the twenty-firstcentury workforce is one in which learning is a matter of repertoire, flexibility, and multiple talents.
Business and industry have been vocal about the quality of graduates entering the workforce. A 2006 publication titled Educating Engineers for the 21st Century: The Industry View called for engineers to have a sound knowledge of the engineering fundamentals within their discipline as well as social and interpersonal skill sets including communication, team-working, and business skills (Spinks, Silburn, & Birchill, p. 3). Charles Vest (2007), president emeritus of MIT, called for engineering graduates to “write and communicate well, think about ethics and social responsibility, conceive and operate systems of great complexity within a framework of sustainable development and be prepared to live and work as global citizens”.
The National Leadership Council for Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP; Crutcher, O’Brien, Corigan, & Schneider, 2007), an initiative sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, identified analogous aims and outcomes for all students, regardless of discipline, outcomes necessary for survival in a twenty-first-century workforce. In preparing graduates for the twenty-first-century workforce, we need to take into consideration the features of that workforce. Kalantizis and Cope (2002) make the observation that “a division of labour into its minutest deskilled components is replaced by ‘multi-skilled’ allround workers who are flexible enough to be able to do complex and integrated work”. New workers will be what they call “portfolio workers,” whose strength is not in career stability and content knowledge but in range and versatility. The learning culture that will foster a transformation to the needs of the twenty-firstcentury workforce is one in which learning is a matter of repertoire, flexibility, and multiple talents.
