University Skills
What Skills Should be Taught at University Level? The educated population is paramount in today’s world. With a general convergent impact, educational reforms along with massive innovations in information and technology have taken significant steps in up-gradation which are the major factors in economic development and act as a core advantage for every nation on a global scale.
For studying degree programs, university education is considered more than the high level of the learning process. It is a crucial component of human development; it provides not only the top-notch skills necessary for every labor market but also the training is essential for every personnel. It is these trained individuals who develop the capacity and analytical skills that drive local economies, support civil society, teach children, lead effective governments, and make important decisions that move entire societies.
Importance of Developing Essential Skills
In a constantly changing environment, developing a set of essential skills is now necessary to meet daily life challenges. To cope with the increasing pace and swaps, university students should be taught several life skills such as the ability to deal with stress and frustration and other personal improvement skills to assist them to move on with the course of their lives.
Academic Writing and Reading Skills
Academic writing and reading skills encourage students to become more efficient learners. At university, academic writing is a skill students use each day. Directing students to write good standard content is a key for coursework assignments, dissertations, and lab reports. This will eventually help students to write long answers and essay questions during the examination, also it will familiarize them with paraphrasing, referencing context, and writing styles. Like writing, reading is also important to develop effective surfing techniques to improve speed and selecting the right content to read the relevant topic.
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is a skill defined by thinking clearly, rationally and being able to recognize and understand good arguments and then create an assessment from the evidence presented. Most students find it difficult at first to rationalize the given evidence and lessons. Students must be taught critical thinking and problem-solving skills to evaluate and identify the information in an eminent manner.
Communicational Skills
It is vital for university members to develop communicational skills among their students. By prioritizing teacher-student conversation can elevate learners confidence and exposure. Introducing multiple opportunities such as group projects, presentations, and extra-curricular activities can have a great transferable effect on them.
Time Management
Proper prior planning can prevent student’s poor performance during their studying years. Coping up with workload during a short amount of time with effective managing strategies should be taught to students to plan realistically and prevent stress in them as well.
Conducting Interactive Sessions:
By conducting interactive sessions and workshops on various topics with students can help to sharpen their skills and unlock new horizons. It will also help them to adopt different people’s perspectives and environments, improve leadership skills and build up their confidence for future experiences. These sessions help learners to become better listeners, problem solvers, and tolerant towards multiple opinions.
Soft Skills
Educational institutions rarely spend their time in teaching students soft skills, such as time management, organizational skills, the ability to look someone in the eyes when conversing, ask complicated questions during lectures, constructing individual’s creativity and innovation, developing IT skills, teaching enterprise or entrepreneurial approaches for their exposure and much more. These soft skills are mostly neglected but they are as crucial to learning as academic skills.
It is necessary for university students to learn a core set of knowledge, to help them develop major skills rather than just focusing on earning good grades for a course. Educators are needed to engage students in higher demanding thinking and analytical skills in order for them to develop the competencies that will be critical to their future success.
Sadaf Ahmad is a freelancer and she is an intern at STUDENTINN. She is also contributing to Pakstudy.xyz, and MainHOONPakistan.
