SKILL ACQUISITION IN BUSINESS EDUCATION: ISSUES, CHALLENGES, AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE DIGITAL ERA

Abstract

The digital era has fundamentally reshaped the landscape of business, creating an urgent need for the workforce to be equipped with new and dynamic skills. Thus, the paper discussed business education skills in the digital age. A three-stage model was used to discuss the stages of skill acquisition that can be adopted in business education for skills development. The paper equally examined the issues in business education programmes in the digital era such as curriculum gaps in business education, pedagogical challenges in business education and faculty development and training. The paper also highlights the significant gap between traditional curricula and the skills demanded by modern employers. Furthermore, the paper discussed leveraging digital technologies and its opportunities for enhanced learning and employability. The paper suggests that the curricula should be regularly reviewed and updated in collaboration with industry experts to ensure alignment with current and future workforce needs; business educators should embrace learner-centered, experiential learning as their teaching methods; and institutions should provide ongoing professional development and training opportunities for educators to enhance their digital competencies and pedagogical skills.