STLHE 2016 SAPES

Learners who are equipped to effect positive change in a rapidly changing world must develop useful and transferable skills in order to be productive members of the workforce and society. Transferable skills in areas such as communication, analysis and problem-solving, and the application of knowledge in real-world settings are critical components of an education that can empower individuals to deal with the complexity, diversity, and advances of the 21st century. Using data from the 2013, 2014, and 2015 administrations of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), this session explores the participation of over 20,000 first-year and senior students in activities that promote the development of valuable skills such as verbal and written fluency and analytic inquiry at fourteen Canadian higher education institutions. NSSE annually collects information about first-year and senior students’ participation in programs and activities that institutions provide for their learning and personal development. In this session, we focus on student participation in transferable skill development for the workplace.

During the session participants will 1) learn about a method for measuring undergraduate student development of transferable skills; 2) investigate the frequency of student participation in activities that contribute to the development of transferable skills; 3) examine and discuss patterns in transferable skill development participation across student demographics, major fields, and institutions; 4) explore connections between transferable skill development and other effective educational practices; and 5) discuss what these patterns and relationships say about transferable skill development in different contexts and what that means for efforts to improve undergraduate education. This session will be highly interactive with participants engaging in reflection and discussion throughout the session.