DIGITALIZATION AS AN EFFECTIVE KEY TO SUSTAINABLE AND FUNCTIONAL SKILLS IN BUSINESS EDUCATION: AN ARGUMENTATIVE REVIEW

This paper examines the role of digitalization in updating functional skills within business education, arguing that it is the primary mechanism for ensuring graduates remain employable in a technology-driven economy. As business operations increasingly rely on automation, cloud platforms, and data analytics, traditional curricular risk producing graduates with outdated competencies. The study contends that digitalization addresses this gap in two interconnected ways. First, it transforms core functional areas – office technology and Management, Accounting, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship by embedding digital tools and workflows into coursework. This enable students to develop practical skills aligned with current industry standard. Secondly, it supports the development of sustainable skills by shifting education toward continuous adaptable learning. Through e-learning platforms, AI-assisted instruction, and modular digital content, students cultivate digital literacy, problem-solving and self-directed learning abilities that remain transferable across roles and career stages. The paper also engages with critical perspectives that highlight potential drawbacks, including unequal access to technology, platform dependency, and the risk of eroding foundational analytical skills. It responds that these challenges are manageable through inclusive infrastructure, emphasis on transferable digital concepts over proficiency in any single software and pedagogical designs that use technology to argument rather than replace critical reasoning. The paper concluded that deliberate, inclusive digitalization is necessary for business education to remain relevant, equitable and responsive to the demands of the green and digital transitions. It recommended among others that tertiary institutions should run regular ICT/digital upskilling programmes for business educators as to enable them to model the digital tools students will use in industry