Flexible learning in higher education: driving future skills development and employment opportunities

The world is rapidly changing due to the evolution of society and technological developments; these, together with the challenges from the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), demand new knowledge and skills for future employment. Making engineering education more flexible increases students'
choices to enrol in the labour market successfully. From the perspective of students, lecturers, and institutions, flexibilization in higher engineering education can take a dimension to (1) develop lifelong learning skills, (2) create individual learning paths by providing choices, (3) generate mobility, (4) support the learning process regardless time and location; (5) meet individual learning demands as students have diverse backgrounds (age, previous education, work experience, nationality, etc.), different needs (learning style, learning pace, etc.) and intrinsic motivation and ambitions to learn (job motivation, themes, etc.). Universities and higher education institutions (HEIs) look for ways to integrate flexibilization in the curriculum and the
provision of study programs. In this study, an investigation of the role of HEIs in developing engineering skills to join the labour market successfully takes place through the lens of three universities by mapping the model of Education 4.0 from the World Economic Forum 2020 report and the 2019 framework for enhancing students’ success. Results indicate the various approaches and practices each university offers to elucidate how flexibility can be leveraged to enhance skills development and meet the dynamic needs of the labour market (employability). Finally, the developed model used to map flexibilization strategies is a suitable tool to capture examples of flexibilization in engineering education.