The statement that graduate students should posses skill-sets which is necessary for their future careers is a fair assumption. But what about the degree of that, should they be taught the every essential aspect of their future profession, or given a broad spectrum of high level knowledge, which later may be applied in the specific areas. I presume, that the public education should produce universal specialist, after a short period of time capable to perform at any particular area, within the field they were pursuing at the university.
Nova days, when industries have grown apart so far, most employers want to hire already highly skilled specialists, so no time or money required for one’s on-boarding. Conversely, often newly graduates barely know how to operate on their own, much less may be assigned a task, having no idea of how to approach the task, without supervision. For example, when a business hires an engineer they would want him to posses the skill of an actual engineer, and be capable of combining ideas and invent ways to make things work according to the project documentation.
But what if universities change their academic programs, in order to answer the market demand, the specialist they would produce will be so narrowly qualified, that changing a job, even to a slightly different direction, becomes virtually impossible. In my opinion, to achieve the mutually beneficial solution, the two stage education system may be helpful. The prevalent part would still be covering the chosen field in general; Only the last several semesters, if a student desires, may be devoted to specific topics, making him the professional which the current market needs most.
Despite of the business’s desire to have better prepared employees right after the graduation, future prospects of students often go against narrowing the study too much. Especially in the contemporary world, where the rapid progress changes, creates or destroys entire industries in less than a decade, and once acquired deep expertise may become worthless in five years.