Rethinking the Challenges of University Education and Human Resource Development — Vocational Competence vs. Basic/Foundational Capacities

The revitalization strategy for university education has been outlined in three directions, including the inheritance and creation of knowledge. In developing human resources for the revitalization strategy, not only specialized knowledge but also the human and fundamental abilities that support professional skills are important.

• University Education Revitalization Strategy Promotion Project
• What supports professional ability
• Balance in tree models

University Education Revitalization Strategy Promotion Project

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has announced a wide range of projects aimed at realizing Society 5.0. As shown in Figure 1, this is a revitalization strategy that focuses on three main directions.

Figure 1

Source: Compiled by the author.

The first direction is the inheritance and creation of knowledge. We aim to build a distinguished graduate program that brings together world-class educational and research capabilities. (*1) This includes recurrent education aimed at preparing students for immediate employment in growth fields and human resource development aimed at innovation.

The second direction is collaboration both within and outside the university. Within the university, we aim to improve the quality of learning by effectively implementing a university-wide educational responsibility system. Domestic collaborations include a sustainable industry-academia collaborative human resource development system aimed at open innovation and a regional revitalization human resource development program created by the university in collaboration with local governments, companies, and other organizations. International collaborations include organizational collaboration with top overseas universities.

The third direction is disciplinary collaboration. Interdisciplinary collaborations are characterized by academic diversity, such as exploring new interdisciplinary fields and creating new industries through cross-disciplinary collaboration. Priority areas include projects to promote next-generation clinical education and research. With

these three directions in mind, let's consider the relationship between the knowledge (or power) needed both within and outside the university.

What supports professional ability

One of the aims of the aforementioned promotional projects is to establish a university-centered organizational structure to provide students with specialized knowledge that will contribute to their future careers. Specialized knowledge refers to specialized knowledge that contributes to solving specific real-world problems, such as cutting-edge research, innovation, and practical knowledge required by local communities. This specialized knowledge supports real-world vocational skills. Human resource development also follows this vocational skills.

Figure 2 shows a diagrammatic model of the elements that enhance vocational skills and specialized knowledge. One of the directions of the revitalization strategy, "knowledge creation/inheritance," corresponds to "specialized knowledge (ability)" and "basic skills" in the diagram at universities. Specialized knowledge (ability) can be thought of as corresponding to upper-year bachelor's programs and master's and doctoral programs at graduate school, while basic skills are primarily related to lower-year bachelor's programs.

Figure 2

Source: Compiled by the author.

Basic skills include specialized fundamental skills and human skills. Specialized fundamental skills are important academic skills that directly support the creation and inheritance of knowledge. In the science and mathematics fields, specialized fundamental skills include basic mathematics and elementary physics. Furthermore, when it comes to international collaboration of knowledge, language skills also qualify.

Human skills refer to leadership and communication skills, which are essential for promoting the creation of knowledge through group work. Leadership skills, in particular, play a crucial role in determining the direction of practical work. Human skills can be said to directly contribute to the development of future professional abilities. Fundamental skills are

intrinsic strengths that determine the direction of academic studies and careers. Many prominent businesspeople and researchers are imbued with professional conviction and a spirit of service. In the field of robotics, some researchers say they chose the field because they were inspired by the Astro Boy cartoon they grew up watching. This also functions as fundamental strength. There are also examples of major league baseball players whose fundamental strengths were created by their childhood home environment.

Next, let's consider the visibility and measurability of some of the "abilities" shown in Figure 2.

The mastery and results of specialized knowledge are highly visible and measurable from the perspective of professional abilities that utilize that specialized knowledge. For example, in cutting-edge research, evaluations include whether a paper has been published and how many times it has been referenced in other papers.

Professional abilities related to innovation are evaluated based on the number of patents and sales performance of newly developed products. These visible and measurable evaluation results directly affect an individual's professional career. On the other hand, the fundamental abilities that support professional abilities, while understandable qualitatively, are less visible and measurable.

The visibility and measurability of basic abilities is difficult to pinpoint depending on the situation. In other words, while evaluation—i.e., objective measurement of academic ability—is possible within individual course content, professional evaluation is often unclear. For example, in science and mathematics, specialized basic abilities include basic mathematics and elementary physics. Although these academic abilities are highly visible and measurable through the use of paper-based assessment tools, their contribution to professional ability is low. Human abilities, by their very nature, are also not highly visible or measurable. Meanwhile,

modern data science and generative AI are often considered to contribute to work-ready capabilities. While their scope is constantly changing, these fields are highly visible and measurable in terms of both specialized knowledge and professional ability.

Strengthening fundamental and fundamental abilities provides momentum for professional ability. Conversely, recognition of professional achievements leads to confidence in fundamental and fundamental abilities and strengthens fundamental resolve. Therefore, qualitatively, it can be said that professional ability and fundamental and fundamental abilities exhibit a positive correlation.

Balance in tree models

Let's consider an image of a balanced workforce in terms of occupational ability and fundamental/fundamental abilities.

of this within the framework of Tree Theory®, which likens the qualities of a workforce to a tree ⁽ *2). Humans and trees look fundamentally different, so this is only a rough comparison. However, using the tree model, we can roughly think of the above-ground part as occupational ability and the underground part as fundamental/fundamental abilities. This is because, while occupational ability is visible and measurable, the influence of fundamental/fundamental abilities on a workforce can be understood as a trend, but its form is thought to be nearly invisible and immeasurable.

Figure 3

Source: Compiled by the author

In Figure 3, the small tree (a) grows to (b) as the trunk, branches, and leaves above ground and the roots underground grow almost simultaneously. Trees like (c) that only grow above ground do not exist in nature. (

(b) and (c) have the same shape and size above ground, so they are considered to have the same visible and measurable qualities. However, when blown by a strong wind, (c) will fall first. Also, imagine that (b) and (c) are tied together with a rope in the middle of their above-ground parts, playing a pseudo-tug-of-war. (c) will also fall first. Although the underground part is invisible and unmeasurable, it is easy to see how important the underground part is to maintaining a strong tree. Only the balanced (b) can become a "tree that everyone will respect" that can withstand strong winds and tug-of-war. The title of Shibusawa Eiichi's major work, "The Analects and the Abacus," evokes the sense of balance mentioned earlier.

What should we learn and practice to cultivate the qualities of the underground? To what real-world social phenomena do the strong winds and tug-of-war mentioned earlier correspond? How would we interpret a single tree as corresponding to a country? It's interesting to imagine the tree model as a botanical version of Aesop's Fables and let your imagination wander.

In promoting the promotion project mentioned at the beginning, there was an important issue of basic and fundamental strength, which should be contrasted with occupational strength for the sake of balance.

(Revised and expanded version of the article in the November 2023 issue of EN-ICHI FORUM)

References

*1　北垣郁雄編著（2017）『学生エリート養成プログラム―日本、アメリカ、中国』東信堂.
*2　北垣郁雄（2018）「大学における学生エリート養成プログラム」『政策オピニオン』No.104,平和政策研究所. https://ippjapan.org/pdf/Opinion104_IKitagaki.pdf

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