"BILT for Success": An Alternative Education Strategy to Reskill the Business and Technology Professionals for a Sustainable Future

ABSTRACT

Today's organizations are operating in a volatile, uncertain and complex digital environment. The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this situation. There is an urgent need for organizations to acquire a new generation of business and technology professionals that not only possess in-depth and current disciplinary specialization knowledge, but also are able to communicate and collaborate using skills across the organization in fields including business, innovation, leadership, and technology (BILT). It is recognized that the traditional pathway of getting a "full-fledged" master's degree within 18-24 months may not address the challenge in a timely manner. As educators working in the technology and business sectors of higher education, we aim to explore an alternative strategy to prepare the BILT workforce ready for the "new" economy. This article reviews several alternative education models that have been taken by different stakeholders to prepare the workforce to meet employers' quickly changing expectations. An "H-shaped" BILT model is illustrated as a modular curriculum structure to enhance and complement disciplinary specializations with a focus on combined skills across multiple domains. We present a case study with details on developing and implementing the BILT model at our school as an alternative pathway with greater degrees of flexibility and agility. Finally, we discuss the potential of generalizing this alternative education model in other settings and delineate several future research directions.