Meeting business needs for ‘savvy’ business graduates: A framework for closing the gap between business needs and academic deliverables

Utilising an andragogical philosophy, this paper presents a framework based on Kolb’s (1984) learning cycle as a major step in closing the gap between the skills that managers’ require third-level graduates to have and that which academia delivers. Informed by the tertiary education literature and extracting parallel aspects from the industrial academic literature on knowledge transfer as a rational for change, the framework integrates a program of students’ external experiences with problem-based learning (PBL), peer-to-peer learning and peer-tutoring over a tri-semester period located in the third and fourth year of an honour's business degree programme. The framework focalises and extends the degree programme's sixth semester work-placement through the integration of pre- and post-modules crafted to substantially enhance student learning in all three semesters. As far as the authors are aware, the framework represents a new approach to undergraduate education as it employs a more holistic approach to higher education that has not been utilised previously. The framework reflects an outcome of a knowledge transfer initiative that is currently ongoing at the authors’ third-level institute. The goal of the initiative is to improve the incidences of knowledge transfer, strengthen the learning experience (the skill set) of the learner and contribute more directly to the creation of a knowledge economy. Similar to the goal of the knowledge transfer initiative, the overarching objective of this paper is to promote a shift in terminology and philosophy, and provide a unique framework for change.