Education skills for digital age toward sustainable development – analysis and future directions

Abstract

Purpose This study provides an insight on education skills for digital age that could be considered by higher education institutions (HEIs) toward sustainable development. This study summarizes academic literature and provides a proposal for integrating a set of educational skills toward United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that are aligned with competencies mapped with international practices delivered by qualification frameworks. This paper will act as guiding tool for academics while revising or developing academic curricular for Business Education Sector. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a combination of academic literature, published practices of HEIs and policy/regulatory standards as well as academic frameworks used as drivers for implementing educational skills for sustainable development. Findings HEIs need to rethink its curricular design and revisit the graduate attributes in sync with set of evaluation mechanisms to assess key educational skills for digital age and sustainable development to create a societal impact particularly in Business Education Sector with the focus on interdisciplinary for digital age including technology and management skills. Research limitations/implications The method used is exploratory. Future research could be developed with a structured approach to validate the findings. Practical implications HEIs could use the proposed set of educational skills for digital age to be inculcated within the curricular of business education sector, at policymaking level HEIs may revisit their current strategies and include different policies and procedures to assess the impact of integrating key educational skills for digital age skills toward sustainable development. Social implications Student, parents, employers will have better understanding of expected education skills for digital age toward sustainable development which will support learning progression and career pathways. Originality/value Little research has been conducted on the impact of education skills for digital age toward sustainable development in line with competencies related to national framework, the outcome of this study provides original contribution to support HEIs adaptation.