Shifting landscapes in higher education: a case study of transferable skills and a networked classroom in South-East Asia

ABSTRACT

The rapidly changing workforce of the C21st places increasing demands on higher education institutions to produce graduates who possess sound academic credentials and key skills, and who furthermore demonstrate the ability to transfer knowledge and skills from their studies to the workplace. This paper begins with a definition of key/core skills, followed by a discussion of how they relate to transferable skills. A review of literature regarding the transference of skills from tertiary settings to workplaces in South-East Asia reveals that most literature of the region addresses key competencies rather than the transferable skills that employers value. Transferable skills are further analysed in the context of networked spaces of learning and the theory of connectivist learning. A case study of one networked classroom (NC) of an Australian university in Singapore is presented, highlighting how engagement in problem-based and project-based learning contributes to the development of transferable skills. Results indicate that the spatial and material resources of the NC intersect with practice-based learning experiences assisting students in skills acquisition by providing a teaching and learning space in which to apply transferable skills. Implications of this study point to the need for further research regarding embedding transferable skills within higher education curricula.

KEYWORDS:

• Networked classrooms
• higher education
• transferable knowledge and skills
• employability skills
• South-East Asia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by an external Industry Grant JCU/0009/2013/AL, and has received Institutional Ethics Approval H5323.

Notes on contributors

Margaret Anne Carter

Margaret Anne Carter is highly respected within the education field, as an academic, researcher and practitioner. Her academic leadership in collaborative, reciprocal and relevant student directed learning experiences has resulted in consistently high levels of student engagement and subsequent outcomes. Her strong research interests provide a solid foundation for exceptional teaching. Margaret-Anne has proven outcomes in leading capacity building programs and projects, and developing sustainable internationalized, multicultural and inclusive approaches to teaching, learning and assessment. Margaret-Anne has published widely in areas including blended learning, mental health in higher education, social teaching, character education.

Anita Lundberg

Anita Lundberg is a cultural anthropologist whose interdisciplinary practice includes analyses of higher education. Her ethnographic research focuses on Southeast Asia. She has held numerous fellowships including: CNRS LIA TransOceanik (CNRS, Collège de France & JCU), The Cairns Institute, Australia; a Post-Doctoral Fellow, Cambridge University, UK; a Guest Researcher, Maison Asie-Pacifique, Université d’Aix-Marseille, France; and a Visiting Fellow with the Institute of the Malay World and Civilization, National University Malaysia.

Lennie R.C. Geerlings

Lennie R.C. Geerlings is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University, the Netherlands, and research fellow at KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies. Her ethnographic research explores the social effects and lived experiences of globalization, mobilities and migrations in Southeast Asia.

Abhishek Bhati

Abhishek Bhati is the Campus Dean of James Cook University Singapore (JCUS). His leadership guides the learning, teaching and academic governance of programs offered at JCU Singapore. Abhishek Bhati’s research investigates resilience planning in tourism, sustainable development of cities and scholarship of learning and teaching. In particular, he is interested in learning and technology and the role it has as a catalyst for Transnational Education and “Smart City” as a mechanism for future sustainable development and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In one of the recent projects he has studied incorporating “work integrated learning” (WIL) based learning strategies in multi-campus transnational higher education.