Topic of university education

[yhjsaber]

Many people believe that the main aim for university education is to help graduates to find better jobs, while some people believe that university education should aim at cultivating students’ overall abilities. What is your opinion?

People hold different opinions as to whether university education should be occupation-oriented or it should focus on improving students’ overall ability. In my opinion, cultivating graduates to be competent in implementing their vocational and interpersonal skills is of most importance.

The intense competition in the modern society means that a fresh graduate has to be specialised in certain skills in order for this person to start a reasonable career. For instance, without sufficient programming capability, it would be not feasible for a student who is seeking to work in IT industries to be employed by a high-tech firm, where advanced technical computer skills are required. Therefore, equipping young adults with adequate professional ability that makes them attractive to prospective employers is one vital role that universities must play.

However, without being proficient in interacting with colleagues, excellent professional skills that an employee possesses are in vain. It is often the case that a fresh graduate fails to lead others or work well as a part of a team, which hinders them from advancing their careers, due to their lack of necessary people skills. Having considered this, it is hard to deny that one crucial purpose of university education is to educate the young to be effective communicators. This must involve training them to efficiently collaborate with their cohorts and fostering their sense of responsibility.

In conclusion, having proficient occupational abilities and being able to effectively communicate and coordinate with others people at work are two important factors for any graduate who wants to secure a desired job. Therefore, it is pivotal for universities to concentrate not only on teaching vocation-related academic subjects, but also to provide sufficient opportunities for young people to improve their interpersonal skills.

[allen_zhang]

I guess you are supposed to talk about something like music, arts, sports, pure science etc.

[yhjsaber]

I guess you are supposed to talk about something like music, arts, sports, pure science etc.

Hi Allen,

Thank you for your suggestion. I reckon that playing music, creating a piece of art work, being able to compete with other sports players and knowing how to conduct scientific research can all be considered as occupational skills, meaning that there are specific universities teaching these subjects: art school, music college, etc. I think the overall ability refers to both occupational skills and people skills, and most universities focus solely on teaching occupation-related subjects rather than on developing students' interpersonal ability. I have thought about writing as you suggested, but it turned out there are too many things to be justified within 250 words.

Cheers
Carlen