Embedding professional skills development into module/programme design

Developing students’ professional skills is crucial for their career readiness. But how can educators integrate those practical abilities into academic coursework? Nicky Thomas, Senior Lecturer in Tax and Accounting, and Fiona Hartley, Employability and Careers Consultant, led an interactive Eduexe workshop tackling this challenge. They demonstrated easy, engaging techniques to build students’ employability skills through day-to-day teaching.

The workshop began with a hands-on exercise using Playmobil figures. Participants created figurines that represented the skills needed for employability, like communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. This simple activity set the tone for active learning and also allowed attendees to identify common barriers students face in developing professional competencies.

Through discussion, the group formulated potential solutions. These included:

• Raising student awareness of their current skill levels and abilities needs to be strengthened.
• Fostering an innovative, problem-solving mindset rather than fear of failure.
• Teaching and encouraging critical thinking skills.
• Using team projects, presentations, and other interactive resources to enable collaboration.
• Creating an environment where students learn resilience and self-advocacy.
• Maintaining a global outlook and ambition to become Graduates of Distinction.

Using engaging hands-on activities taps into students’ creativity, educators can make learning professional skills fun rather than a dry add-on.

To integrate hands-on collaboration and creativity into learning and teaching, Nicky and Fiona highlighted the resources available at the Creative Quadrant on the Streatham campus. This dedicated creative space contains a wealth of materials for active learning which include craft supplies, games, and multimedia equipment. The Quadrant also provides guidance for designing engaging activities that teach transferable skills.

Nicky and Fiona also introduced a new framework developed by the Business School called Graduate Skills to Thrive. It focuses on enabling students to actively develop core skills during their academic journey. The framework outlines seven skillsets that help students thrive at university and in their careers:

• Communication
• Self-management
• Problem solving
• Commercial awareness
• Global outlook
• Collaboration
• Resilience

Visual badges are used to represent each competency. Faculty can use these to indicate which skills their modules develop which in turn raises student awareness of the skill-building opportunities in coursework that may otherwise go unnoticed.

Moving forward, the challenge is supporting students to reflect on their experiences and focus on personal skills growth. With the framework’s guidance, students can better recognise their development and collect concrete evidence of competencies. This builds the confidence to articulate strengths for employer recruitment. The Student Employability Award Scheme (SEAS) created a reflective skills portfolio based on the Graduate Skills to Thrive framework. Academic Support and other groups also plan to utilise it for development purposes.

The interactive workshop demonstrated easy ways to incorporate professional skills development into daily teaching. This ensures students graduate not just with academic knowledge but with tangible abilities to thrive in their careers. Resources like the Creative Quadrant and Graduate Skills to Thrive framework provide guidance for this effort and demonstrates the university’s commitment to graduating job-ready students.

This blog post was developed by Jo Sutherst, following an interview with Nicky Thomas and Fiona Hartley.