Abstract
The most recent trends in education emphasize the importance of its strong focus on the learner’s job-readiness, a convergence of education with the world of work, and its adaptation to the needs of the learner and the employer. Ascribable to its far-reaching partnership with 21st-century educational thinking, demand-driven education and planning for the future, the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classroom is no exception to this, seeing modifications and adaptations in its search for a deeper understanding of the reliable skill set introduction and development. While debating current global and local issues, changes, and challenges in the broad area of ESP, this paper focuses on Omani tertiary education students’ understanding of in-demand 21st-century skills and their development in the dimensions of these skills. The discussion is anchored in the personal feedback of students enrolled in English for Business course offered by the Centre for Preparatory Studies at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. In terms of future employability, students were asked to rate twenty-three skill areas and how these skill areas were covered in the course in bilingual English and Arabic questionnaire administered online. The results demonstrate students’ understanding of the importance of 21st-century skills for future employability. They also show that effective in-demand skill instruction requires teacher initiative in the enhanced incorporation of learner-centered teaching approaches and more language learning activities and tasks with a focus on interactive and experiential instruction. This involves a synthesis of best practices in integrated language skills with a special focus on speaking, the application of different innovative tools and techniques of teaching, and enhancement of positive attitudes toward aligning skill areas, with an emphasis on idea development, content knowledge, critical and creative thinking.
Highlights
In recent years, globalization as a “central driving force behind the rapid social, political, and economic changes” (Held et al 1999: 7) has had profound effects on societies and economies worldwide
The education sector’s policy and programs have been enriched with a powerful discourse involving the concepts of innovation, information age, knowledge-based economy, life-long learning, learning for workplace flexibility, 21st-century teaching, and learning, and demand-driven education among others whereas the development of an “educated and skilled population to create, share and use knowledge” (Robertson, et al, 2007: 117) has been identified as one of the pillars of modern knowledge-based economies facing a knowledge and skills gap. Such an imbalance between the abilities possessed by young people entering the workforce versus the abilities that companies are seeking (Moore & Morton, 2017) is occurring all over the world, and the Middle East is included in this human resources and workforce trend
It was fruitful to identify classroom activities that are supportive in skill development and hear students’ comments on course improvement in relation to in-demand 21st-century skills’ teaching and learning, and students’ development in the dimensions of these skills. 2.1 Research Design The study involved students enrolled in English for Business III course at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman
Summary
Globalization as a “central driving force behind the rapid social, political, and economic changes” (Held et al 1999: 7) has had profound effects on societies and economies worldwide. The education sector’s policy and programs have been enriched with a powerful discourse involving the concepts of innovation, information age, knowledge-based economy, life-long learning, learning for workplace flexibility, 21st-century teaching, and learning, and demand-driven education among others whereas the development of an “educated and skilled population to create, share and use knowledge” (Robertson, et al, 2007: 117) has been identified as one of the pillars of modern knowledge-based economies facing a knowledge and skills gap Such an imbalance between the abilities possessed by young people entering the workforce versus the abilities that companies are seeking (Moore & Morton, 2017) is occurring all over the world, and the Middle East is included in this human resources and workforce trend. The rate for the Middle East is approximately 26 percent, which is double the global average (Khamis, 2020)
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