Teach students to hone their adaptability to new skills

The Business Cup Challenge is an inter-school competition that launches high school students into the business world at a young age.

The rate at which technology keeps evolving poses a significant challenge for educators across universities, especially when it comes to ensuring that their students are ready to apply their skills in the workforce, said Daniel Adkins, chief executive officer of Curtin University Dubai's academic infrastructure provider Transnational Academic Group.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Business Cup Challenge (BCC), an inter-school competition that launches high school students into the business world at a young age, Adkins said that it was necessary to have more of such competitions to give students the skills they needed to adapt to new technologies, once they are part of the workforce.
"It is futile to think that you are able to teach students everything that they will need to know about technology before they graduate," Adkins said. "However, what we can do is teach them how to learn about new technologies on their own and then properly utilise them."
Running for the fifth time since its initiation, this year's competition focused on blockchain technology and the use of cryptocurrency in businesses. Students are required to review real-world business cases business plans, analyse crucial business situations and present a case to an academic and professional panel. Students will also get the opportunity to work as part of a team, in a competitive environment, using their critical-thinking and problem solving skills and business acumen. The competition drew the participation of 117 teams and 750 students from leading schools across the UAE.
"We know that students are increasingly having to deal with technologies such as blockchain, so we need to provide them with the proper skill sets to work with such technologies in the future," Adkins said.
Asked about how the students had performed over the preliminary rounds, Adkins said that he was impressed by the overall level of commitment and dedication to research that the students had shown.
"Looking at the response that we have received, we have made plans for more of such competitions next year. There will be another edition of the Business Cup Challenge, as well as two more competitions that focus on engineering and IT."
- rohma@khaleejtimes.com