Global management experts urged Southeast Asia's educational institutions and governments to promote short technology courses as more multinational firms seek to quickly hire people with digital skills.

"This is a happy problem because demand is higher than the supply. From the industry side, they see this as a gap but universities should see this as an opportunity," professor Kyong Jin Shim of Singapore Management University said last Tuesday in a webinar organized by the Asian Development Bank.

Technology courses can run in three months where students develop basic Internet and other computer skills and, most importantly, a growth or learning mindset, Jeremy Fox, chief executive officer of Generation for Asia-Pacific said.

"Afterwards when our graduates get in front of employers, they're highly motivated. In a company it doesn't matter what staff it has, but if they can learn new things quickly," Fox said.

Generation is a global organization that helps non-college graduates, the unemployed and the underemployed learn modern digital skills and secure a job quickly through training partnerships with private firms.

The organization is funded by donations from industry leaders, including Microsoft, Verizon, BlackRock and McKinsey & Company, aside from the government. 

"The most important digital technology is what the market wants. We constantly go back and re-sample the market to see what's new, what they do not have," Fox said.

Diversifying skills

He added short technology courses allow graduates to diversify their skills and knowledge over a short period of time.

"We're giving them entry-point skills. In the medium term, they can apply their other transferable skills or enter another industry," Fox said.

As examples, Shim said there is a massive need for technology-savvy workers in the healthcare, logistics and fashion industries.

"Digital skills are available in a spectrum," Talitha Amalia, director of operations at Solve Education, added.

Solve Education consists of teachers, technology experts, and business executives from various countries who advocate for digital learning using non-traditional ways.

According to a 2021 study by the University of Washington, 53 percent of graduates in the US were either unemployed or worked in jobs that did not require college degrees.

Meanwhile, Harvard Business Review says demand for certificate courses could rise further as a Gallup study shows the US population who deem obtaining a university diploma is very important has dropped to 41 percent from 74 percent in six years.

"Problem solving starts with identifying problems outside universities. To have meaningful solutions and create that learning environment, universities have to partner with industry players," Shim said as she agreed universities might become outdated due to rapid technological advancements globally.