Discuss the practical steps a university may take to help its students Essay - 1

Discuss the practical steps a university may take to help its students be as competitive as possible when they enter the labour market - Essay Example (Farazmand and Pinkowski 2007, p. 183) In this regard, this paper will outline important steps that the universities and colleges could undertake in order for its students to be competitive in the labor market. These steps would be cited in the context of two important roles that the school is thought to play. The university, wrote Achuthan (1993), in its functionalist role, is seen as one of the final steps in the educational system, completing the long preparation of the student for his or her role in society. (Achuthan p. 27) The tertiary educational institution, hence, must ensure that their students have been immersed and ingested the basic stock of knowledge that represents the core values of its culture. Here, it is emphasized that the student is not just educated but that he or she would leave the school armed with specific employment-oriented skills and knowledge. Education institutions can do this by coordinating with the government and the private sector. Such initiative could provide the school with the knowledge and tools in order integrate in its curriculum those skill and knowledge areas that are demanded by industries today. This is demonstrated, for instance, in the way the Singaporean education system works. The fundamental characteristic of the Singaporean system is the involvement of the government in the creation of curricula in the universities. This is shown in the existence of the state agency called Economic Development Board (EDB), which is concerned with the general responsibility of ensuring the inward investment in the country. Part of its mandate is to assure the human resource requirements for new industries to be created by the foreign capital. EDB ensures that education and training system is capable of producing the right type of skills required for the new industries, as part of the greater strategy to lure