Curriculum Reform: An Imperative for Cross-Boundary Employability

: With particular reference to developing nations like Nigeria, it is the objective of the paper to address the problem of the deficit of Office and Information Managers with appropriate employability skills for the 21st century cross-boundary labor market. Through the method of critical discourse and content analysis the paper analytically espoused the concepts of Office and Information Management, curriculum reform and cross boundary employability as a background to outlining the interplay between the phenomena of curriculum reform and cross-boundary employability in the 21st century.The paper established what it considered the key contents foundational to a viable curricular reform for employability across boundaries in the 21st century. In the final analysis the paper proffers adoption of appropriate policy frameworks for training Office and Information Managers for global relevance and competitiveness.


INTRODUCTION
The business world today is not only complex and complicated but also unpredictable and competitive.The complexities and uncertainties of the 21st century present challenges to human resources.Human resources are viewed as an organization's most valuable resource as they are considered pivotal to businesses, governmental and non-governmental organizations.Human resources are crucial to the performance and profitability of any organization.Most organizations are structured towards recruiting, promoting and keeping persons who are not only trustworthy, ethical and resourceful but also persons who have strong communication skills, are self-directed, dedicated, and have a positive attitude to work and learning (Wats & Wats, 2009).While it is already a well-known reality that organizations are increasingly emphasizing cross-sector capabilities, it is equally crucial that fresh graduates be sufficiently and appropriately armed with such value and make conscious efforts to obtain them (Mitchell, Skinner, & White, 2010).
Research Problem: Academic institutions in the 21st century are under increased pressure to improve their students' cross-sector abilities in order to increase their employability.The problem of employment and employability is not only of concern to fresh graduates and their sponsors (where applicable), but also of immense concern to government, policy makers and policy implementers, among other stakeholders.It is against the background of concerns with the phenomena of employment and employability that most governments in Europe prioritize skills and competencies (Pegg & Herman, 2013).Institutions of higher learning are statutorily expected to produce graduates who are employable and who will in the ultimate contribute to sustainable economic growth across the globe (Small & Shacklock, 2018).
Institutions of higher learning are charged with the responsibilities of ensuring skills, knowledge and training are properly given to every student desiring to pursue a discipline for a career choice.
Research Gap: As traditionally conceived, it is the goal of institutions of higher learning to contribute to the general development of the nation through workforce training, acquisition of intellectual and physical skills, knowledge and competencies which in-turn will enable such individual to remain selfconfident and valuable members of the society (Paul-Mgbeafulike, 2022).It is therefore expected that graduates of the programmes of higher institutions will possess requisite skills and competencies necessary for self-confidence and effectiveness in any organization (Tony-Okeme, 2022).
Basically, cross-border employability means having a marketable skill set and the capacity to find employment outside of one's country of birth or location of formal education.It includes specific talents including communication, decision-making, self-motivation, problem-solving, time management and critical thinking.It refers to people's personalities, traits, qualities, and personal behaviors (Shaheen, Zhang, Shen and Siti, 2012).
However, many Office and Information Management (OIM) students, generally referred to today as Information Management students, do not place much value on possession of cross boundary skills and competencies.Non prioritization of the possession of cross boundary skills and competencies explains why the attitude of Information Managers towards behavioral courses, among others, leaves much to be desired.The implication of the disinterest in the pursuit of cross-boundary skills and competencies by Office and Information Management Students, particularly in developing economies, is the lack of employable Office and Information Managers with requisite skills and competencies that meets the demands of the cross-boundary workplace in the 21st century, among others.
Over the years, especially with the dynamics of globalization and advancement in technology in particular, the post of the Office Secretary has witnessed a nomenclature shift to Office Manager and subsequently to Information Manager (IM).Considering the expected strategic role of information to the success of the organization in the 21 st century, it has become a trend in today's world that organizations now establish Information Management Departments and employ the services of personnel who are now being referred to as Information Managers to manage information gathering, storing and retrieval, among others (Amodu & Ologbosere, 2021).The modern theory of information management (Strassman, 1995) opines that management of information is a corporate responsibility.Consequently, almost everyone with skills and competencies to manage information through the deployment of smart or ICT technologies is today referred to as an Information Manager (or i-Manager).
Against the background of the importance of cross-boundary competencies, there is undoubtedly the need for these competencies to be included in the curriculum of the discipline Office and Information Management.The fact that virtually anyone who is computer literate in the 21 st century can be referred to as an i-Manager draws attention to the need to critically rethink the curriculum of higher institutions with respect to the need to deepen specialized training for future i-managers.The Office and Information Managers of the 21st century need to be positioned as i-managers for professional relevance and competitiveness in the emergent cross-boundary labour market.With particular to Nigeria, there is the need to review the curriculum for training i-managers in line with global needs and trends.The present IM curriculum in Nigeria largely trains students for local employment and does not afford emergent i-Managers much employability opportunities across boundaries.
In line with its ultimate aim of examining the problem of the deficit of Office and Information Managers with appropriate employability skills for the 21st century cross-boundary labor market, the paper is made up of five interrelated sections.Following the introductory section, the second section of the paper analytically espouses the concepts of curriculum reform and cross boundary employability as a background to the third section where the paper attempts a critical outline of the interplay between the phenomena of curriculum reform and cross-boundary employability.In the fourth section, the paper outlines the key contents foundational to a viable curricular reform for employability across boundaries in the 21st century.In the fifth and concluding section the paper proffers adoption of appropriate policy frameworks for training Office and Information Managers for global relevance and competitiveness.

Concepts of Curriculum Reform and Cross-boundary Employability
Global developments have caused more nations to examine curriculum reform as a means of equipping students with the requisite knowledge, abilities and competencies required for the future.While every nation has a unique reform trajectory, several common themes with focus on learner agency, well-being, the capacity to proffer solutions to problems, and manage an unpredictable world-appear in a number of them.Though the term "curriculum" may have been defined in so many ways depending on the context, it is essentially "a plan for learning" (Akker, 2010).This implies that it is a complete set of rules through which the educational system is expected to teach and what lessons students should learn.The term "curriculum" is more narrowly defined as the books, instructional materials, and other resources utilized in learning and teaching.Saavedra and Steele (2012), posit that curriculum should take a different approach, taking into account topics like class sizes, teaching methods, learning objectives, how learning hours are allocated, examination procedures and assessment, among others, which will have a direct effect on how the curriculum will be designed and implemented.
From the analysis above it is appropriate to sum up that curriculum reform refers to changes that are made to the content, structure, and delivery of a curriculum with the goal of addressing the needs and interests of students or improving the quality of education.Nations and institutions have variously carried out curriculum reform for various reasons ranging from national or students' interest; changes in government policies; the demands of employers; shifts in societal values and priorities; and advances in research and technology, among others.
Curriculum reform is often viewed as a national issue since the expectation is to define the abilities and knowledge deemed most important in a nation and required to get ready for the future in a globalized and competitive market.Together, the elements of national interest, globalization, employability and competitiveness influence curriculum reform.The similarities and differences in curriculum reform between nations are a reflection of the complexity of curriculum change as a whole, which involves the interaction of local and global factors.Therefore, "curriculum reforms" are seen as an attempt to access or inform the "content" of knowledge or student learning (Gilbert, 2010).The meanings and approaches to delivering education are transformed generally in a wide variety of ways.In a nutshell, curriculum reform specifically involves altering the goals of achieving knowledge, learning competencies, attitudes and values acquired by students.From this definition, curriculum is viewed as being political and cultural as it seems to determine the image of a community considering the type of knowledge and skills mostly treasured for the people and what kind of knowledge is worth passing on.This is to say that, as society changes, it is expected that curriculum should also replicate a broader political and social contract (Amadio, 2016).Some countries are recently involved in curriculum modification at varying paces and using different techniques so as to prepare students for a world that is evolving quickly.This is because they recognize the necessity for their curricula to develop throughout time.The demand for students to possess the required skills and attitudes appropriate for the 21st century has prompted global interest in curriculum reform.According to Fullan (2015), curriculum reforms are challenging when it comes to implementation, as they necessitate changes in so many ways that might challenge the existing subjective realities and beliefs deeply involved in personal and organizational context.
A comprehensive content review of the curriculum for secretarial studies programme for polytechnics in Nigeria was carried out in 2004, by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) in partnership with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), in a bid for a general content overhaul of the old existing curriculum.From this perspective, they  Leka, Ibrahim, Mshelia & Shehu, 2022 in their assessment pointed out that the value system is so much tinted toward acquisition of certificates while ability and practical demonstration is in decline by the day.Meanwhile, many educational systems in the world today are known for transitioning and initiating curriculum reforms, from a knowledge-based to a competency-based curriculum.
In line with the thinking of economics of labor mobility, as the economy shifts, corporate and industrial demand on the employee changes.While different sectors are replacing other high-growth sectors and creating a demand for special skills, dispositions and knowledge, education at every level is actually pushed to answer.In the last decades, schools focused on "college and career readiness" are gradually critiqued for their use of the "well-worn cliché" and failure to meaningfully address and define career readiness for the changing world of work (Heller, Wolfe and Stienberg, 2017).Representatives from this carefully nominated cadre of schools as well as international and national experts from industry, economics, education and workforce development are reflecting on the varying nature of the economy, related cross-sector competencies, workforce demands, promising new strategies and implications for education to better prepare students for life success and career in general.Among the emerging themes are the importance of identifying the skills, knowledge, and dispositions (not just degrees or certifications) essential for young people to access good jobs and meaningfully participate in society by creating a resource that would be nationally and globally valuable.There is a further emergent need for higher institutions to be focused on how schools can develop students' competencies for success across industry sectors, career-readiness , and most importantly for cross boundary employability.
Cross boundary employability refers to a situation of being employable and marketable across boundaries and being able to work in other climes or environments other than one's place of origin or specialization (professionalism) which can either be in the form of the hiring out or posting of employees.Consequently a cross border employee (also called a 'frontier worker') is someone who lives in a particular country but works in another country, or is a professional with skills and competences required to work "across the boundaries of separate employers" (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996).Cross boundary employment separates workers from their environment or career path to another career-related boundary (Santos & Eisenhardt, 2005).By implication, cross boundary employability can be said to involve moving to a different country to work or transitioning between different industries within the same country.To be employable across boundaries an individual must possess a set of skills and competencies -such as adaptability, cultural awareness, and problemsolving skills -that are transferable across different contexts and environments.
Crossing occupational boundaries suggests that labour market general performance and educational degree of hierarchical level are not conclusive.Thus, having career opportunities across many occupational fields by employees should take cognizance of general skills and knowledge investment that is relevant in diverse professions and industries.

Interplay Between Curriculum Reform and Cross-Boundary Employability
Hashim, Mahat, Nayan, Saleh & See (2019), listed four aspects of curriculum reform that can have a direct impact on how employable graduates of higher education institutions are across borders.The four critical aspects of curriculum reform, according to Hashim et.al. covers curriculum designs: such as the goal for the curriculum, how it is implemented, how it is taught, and how it is evaluated.The critical aspects of curriculum reform have substantial influence on employability and competency.According to Anderson and Rogan (2011), the curricular vision establishes the tone for the learning objectives of a specific curriculum design, particularly in terms of the competences and abilities necessary to succeed in the labor market.Graduates must be capable in the job and meet employer expectations as part of the program vision.Furthermore, according to Johnson-Mardones (2014), the human resource structures and course delivery materials are among the major items included under the operationalization of the curriculum vision.
According to the University of Kansas ( 2014), the curriculum for graduate cross boundary employability should be characterized by the following seven overarching dimensions: -Academic Learning: Progressing and being outstanding in a course of study which provides in-depth combination of academic ability, area of interest and expert knowledge in relation to lifework ambition.
-Experiential Learning: Being involved in decisive and significant experiences beyond the lecture room so as to enlarge and strengthen individual, career and academic areas of interest through piloted thoughts.
-Career Maturity: Belief in a clear self-image in relation to the business environment, possessing knowledge and direct know-how with career investigation and engagement exercises, and looking forward to changes in plans of career as soon as circumstances are altered.
-Professional Skills: Illustrating abilities that is of great significance to the upline such as arranging and organizing work, communicating, solving problems, cooperation and collaboration.
-Career Management: Creating and utilizing the aptitudes and abilities essential to effectively explore the pursuit of work and make knowledgeable and reliable judgements in connection to a continued career advancement.
-Meaningful Connections: Leveraging on common advantageous connections that grows viewpoint, constructs interpersonal skills in communicating and paves the way for greater opportunities.
Print ISSN: 2517-276X The fact is that so many have argued that in a shifting economy the value of cross-sector capabilities is even greater.McKinsey (2017), among others, added that developments in technology and mechanization in the workplace, as described earlier, may give room for new occupations that necessitate a deeper emotional, social and interpersonal-skills, capabilities.As routine work is increasingly computerized, skills like collaboration, critical thinking and communication are becoming more significant.These changes will equally strengthen the need for human capabilities and deeper thinking like empathy, problem solving, leadership and creativity.
Notably, the projection by World Economic Forum ( 2017) is that employers' demand for cross-sector competencies will increase more.These projections are in accordance with business and industry leaders' stand.Accordingly, Georgetown Report Recovery of 2013 on educational requirement and Job Growth Through 2020 posted that the top skills required by high-demand and high-growth jobs include critical thinking, speaking and active listening.All of these are considered as communication competencies.Industry leaders in Indiana proposed that collaboration, relational skills and integrity are the top three most important competency groups.Likewise, CEOs across America in a PWC report confirmed that the top competencies they look forward to in every employee are adaptability, problem-solving, collaboration, creativity, innovation and leadership, yet it seems difficult to find employees that possess these competencies (PwC, 2017).The bottom line therefore is that the combination of these cross-boundary competencies are so much in-demand and viewed as foundational for employees acquiring more specific on-the-job skills in the future (GPPI, 2013).
In general, extensive technical skills such as equipment or programming control and operation are less in demand across industries than social skills like emotional intelligence, persuasion, and educating others.Content skills, cognitive skills such as critical thinking and active listening are becoming more and more important components of the core skill necessities for many businesses.Tony-Okeme & Umoru, 2021 posited that skills involving both vocational and technical knowledge which will impact greatly on economic and commercial development are parts of the objectives for office information management programme.Accordingly, the NBTE in their curriculum and course specifications projected that graduates of vocational and technical programs should be able to cope in any modern office and perform optimally as professionals (NBTE, 2004).Impliedly, for every individual interested in skill acquisition, there is a need to gain a level of knowledge that is relevant to both formal and informal tasks to be performed.Nevertheless, the expected skills every employer looks for in an employee are not completely taught during their training periods.When these skills are obtained, they would unlock the potentials for office information management students especially in this era of technology, (Ukonu & Habu, 2022).

Future Development: Curricular Reform And Students' Employability Across Boundaries in The 21st Century
The 21st century is not only complex and dynamic, it is volatile and unpredictable.The 21st century is characterized with rapid and constant change.Thus whatever curriculum reform strategy is used to adapt to the rapidly changing economy and workplace must be guided by very specific criteria of what students must be able to accomplish in order to succeed in the uncertain labor market.The following underscore some of the numerous importance of curricular reform on undergraduate students' employability across boundaries: -Enhancing Skills for a Working Future: This has to do with ten different abilities or skills proposed for the workforce in the future: 'sense making'; critical thinking; social intelligence, with the intention of building optimal relations in different contexts; adaptable and innovative thinking, so as to streamline adaptation in diverse situations and prioritize innovation; intercultural skills, in order to respond to different settings; computational thinking, in order to enable the translation of a large amount of abstract data; digital literacy, in order to master communication channels; multidisciplinarity, which makes it possible to interrelate different fields; design mentality, in order to target better outcomes; knowledge management, in order to be able to skim through large quantities of data and filter out important information; and virtual collaboration, which is manifested as productivity in relation to both autonomous and collaborative virtual working practices (Davies, Fidler and Gorbis, 2011).
-Enhancing Social Intelligence: The need to enhance Social Intelligence is taken into account in the light of emergent and futuristic technologies and robots.A socially smart worker will try to assess the emotions that exist within the work cluster, to enable him or her to fit into a working environment that accommodates colleagues as well as enhance interactive connections.As noted by Davies, Fidler and Gorbis (2011) 2021) "relevance and survival in the fast paced and constantly changing 21st century is defined by ability to adapt.Adopting and adapting an education framework that instills the skills and competencies of interdisciplinarity is key to overcoming the challenges of underdevelopment.Amodu posits further that educational systems must be positioned "to produce that critical mass of thinkers with requisite interdisciplinary competencies and skills-set for development".
-Increasing Knowledge Management: To enhance cognitive performance and prevent overload, it is vital to carefully examine and filter information.Workers need a variety of tools and skills that allow them to sort through, organize, and transform enormous volumes of data, concentrating only on what is pertinent to the attainment of organizational goals.

CONCLUSION AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
It is crucial to recognize that inclusion of cross boundary employability competencies in the tertiary education curriculum of Office and Information Managers, in particular, would help graduates stand out in the job market.There is the need to address the disconnect between educational programs that in reality highlight the significance of skill development and organizations who prioritize and expect performance.Given that there appears to be a disconnect between curriculum content and cross boundary employability, higher education should offer curricula that are tailored to the shifting demands of the labor market and equip students with cross boundary employability skills.
It is therefore desirable that governments and policy makers at all levels, particularly in developing nations, put in place appropriate policy frameworks and programs for reforming the curriculum for the training of Office and Information Managers in the 21st century.The expected policy framework for the training of Office and Information Managers in the 21st century will address the current deficit of Office and Information Managers equipped with the requisite skills and competences for crossdisciplinary and cross-boundary employability.
://bjmas.org/index.php/bjmas/indexPublished by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK 148 Print ISSN: 2517-276X Online ISSN: 2517-2778 Website: https://bjmas.org/index.php/bjmas/indexPublished by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK 149 incorporated two critical elements into the curriculum which are entrepreneurship and Microsoft office applications.This review metamorphosed into the new name given to the course as Office Technology and Management (OTM) and Office and Information Management (OIM) (Tony-Okeme, 2022).Despite the overhauling of the curriculum in 2004, Soft' or Basic skills occupy a pivotal position in the discussion of any country's workforce.Just as it is difficult to come by 'Soft' or basic skills, 'Soft' or basic skills are also almost famously difficult to define.As noted by the World Economic Forum, 'the cross-sector competencies, such as collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and creativity, are becoming gradually necessary in a world of work which may be less about what you can do with what you know and what you probably know.From the year 2020, an estimate of 52% jobs will likely require an advanced level of skills such as creativity, problem sensitivity, and logical reasoning.(WorldEconomicForum,  2016).
Content skills include active learning and Information and Communication Technologies literacy.Cognitive skills include mathematical reasoning and creativity.Many educational institutions are therefore replying to the crucial request for adaptation by restructuring their curriculum pathways, increasing the quantity of available industry-based credentials, providing other options for dual Innovative thinking is an idea that encourages invention and creativity.A consequence of developing innovative and creative thinking individuals is that the more of such individuals in the society, the more the individuals that are able to innovate, create and invent new tools or solutions for solving problems.-IncreasingIntercultural Competence: In addition to having a broad understanding of the challenges that arise when people from various cultures meet, intercultural competence implies "maintaining receptive attitudes that support the development and maintenance of interaction with diverse others.Working with coworkers from different cultures is one of the notable advantages of business.It is obvious that being able to communicate clearly and successfully with people in any part of the world is helpful.It is also helpful to be able to inspire confidence in clients and forge connections with new clients.-Improving Multidisciplinarity: There exists evidence of multidisciplinarity or interdisciplinarity when a "research group, established by members from diverse disciplines, operates as a team with mutually approved organizational structures and within a general set of goal systems".As noted by Akeem Amodu ( automated work machines cannot possibly use this expertise (that is, social intelligence) at least not right now.