Shaping Future-Ready Leaders: Bridging Durable Skill Gaps in Business Education Report 2025
The future of work is evolving faster than ever—and business education must also evolve to meet the demands of a rapidly changing workforce. Though the focus has traditionally been on ensuring students have the technical skills needed to succeed, cultivating durable skills, such as communication and empathy, is now considered a critical priority for higher education institutions.
Durable skills are necessary for future business leaders’ long-term career success. Cultivating these skills is considered a critical priority for higher education institutions. To meet employer demand, business educators must prioritize assessing, teaching, and nurturing these skills in their students.
What is driving the critical need for durable skills?
Gap # 1: Shortfall in the skill set of students
Business schools are not fully prepared to address the significant gap in their current and future students’ skill sets.
Lack of durable skills measurement at the time of admission and the lack of ongoing measurement and development of these skills throughout the program could result in underperforming students. A continued failure to adapt curricula and address the increased need for non-technical skills could devalue business degrees and affect their perception.
What can institutions do?
Knowing where prospective students are as early as possible along their journey provides a baseline understanding that helps educators identify gaps and create plans for development. Embedding durable skills teaching into core courses and developing dedicated courses focused on durable skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence can ensure graduates have the skills they need to become future-ready leaders.
Gap # 2: Decreased industry emphasis on technical skills
An overemphasis on technical skills in business school curricula has left many graduates ill-prepared for the demands of today’s workforce.
Professionals with durable skills are needed to drive ethical decision-making and create solutions that benefit both the bottom line and the broader community. More than half of recent four-year college graduates are underemployed a year after they graduate, and over a quarter of executives won’t even consider hiring a recent college graduate today due to their lack of durable skills.
What can institutions do?
Experiential learning opportunities such as internships, consulting projects, and partnerships with industry allow students to practice using their durable skills to ensure the curriculum aligns with real-world workforce needs. Provide structured opportunities for students to curate their achievements, obtain verifiable credentials, and communicate their skills to align with employer expectations.
Gap # 3: AI automation
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the workforce. Its growing influence has pushed concerns about ethics and fairness in business to the forefront.
As modern students transition to the workforce, the pervasiveness of AI and technological changes will make many of the technical skills that schools teach today fundamentally obsolete. This massive shift could amplify the need for human capabilities that machines can’t replicate—durable skills that can augment the power of AI in the workplace.
What can institutions do?
Partnering with AI-driven organizations to offer experiential learning that combines AI with ethics and critical thinking will help business schools expand their teaching capacity without additional faculty. Incorporating assessments that measure durable skills will enhance student development and employer confidence.
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Learn more on how to bridge the durable skill gap at your business school!
Watch our webinar in association with the AACSB and discover insights on shaping future-ready leaders.
