Parlez-vous ‘Skills’?

“What am I going to do with this?” “Why do I need to take this class?” “When am I ever going to use this?”

Such questions might begin to creep in as grades are returned, the workload piles up and the winter months begin to turn to spring. And such questions reflect a tendency of so many students to perceive higher education and its courses as mere content widgets, arbitrary dispensaries of intellectual material forced upon them for no good reason in order to earn that diploma.

One way to help students reframe their thinking about education is to create transferable skills assignments. And as we move toward the end of the semester’s work, the two of us—Mary Anne, a faculty member in a world languages and cultures department, and Barbara, an economics and business professor—are eager to encourage other instructors to implement these types of assignments based on our very positive experiences offering them in our own classes.

Indeed, this is a story of two faculty members who have used such assignments in very different disciplines to shine light on something we must increasingly do with our students: intentionally develop transferable skills like teamwork, problem-solving, critical thinking, time management and more. Although the content of our courses differs significantly, we have found remarkable similarities in our students’ increased buy-in, motivation and even disciplinary appreciation as we’ve worked with them in explicit, purposeful ways on transferable skills. Through transferable skills assignments, we remind students of the importance of not only the content they have covered but also the intellectual muscles they have developed—and are continuing to hone—as they engage with the course material in a variety of ways.

Beyond the Box to Be Checked

Let’s take a moment to put ourselves in a student’s shoes. As we all know, the goal for most students is obtaining a diploma and gaining access to the workforce or graduate school. Get the piece of paper, and move on.

Now, imagine that it is the end of the semester in a required course—a general education requirement like English composition, for instance. The professor brings in a list of something called “transferable skills” and engages the class in a discussion.

“Instead of working on our close reading or argumentation techniques today,” she begins, “I want to ask you to step back and think about the skills you have used, developed and strengthened in order to engage with the in-class work as well as the homework.”

She might distribute a copy of a recently published list of skills and attributes from the National Association of Colleges and Employers as a starting point for the discussion. “Let’s look at these together,” she continues. “What do you notice? What surprises you? Does this list give you some language to use to describe the intellectual muscles you’ve been strengthening throughout the course?” The conversation begins.

And just like that, students are thinking not just about that box to be checked or the content with which they’ve been working, they’re thinking about what they now know how to do and how they can use it. And they’re imagining new contexts that would benefit from the skills they’ve been honing right there in class.

Mary Anne is well aware that colleges around the country have cut French departments and programs. So she’s especially motivated to keep her curriculum as relevant as possible through the transferable skills assignment she’s developed. She has used a version of it in every one of her classes for four years. Some students complete this assignment multiple times, and they always appreciate it. It gives them a moment to escape the narrow perspective of just checking the boxes along the path to a degree. It gives them a moment to imagine how education connects to life beyond the formal classroom now and into the future. And it gives them a chance to see that the boxes need to be checked for good reason: in order to develop intellectual muscles that they will use throughout their careers—whether through the discipline of philosophy, business, language, culture, the arts, biology or any other field.

For her part, Barbara teaches a variety of finance courses, all at the undergraduate level. Of course, the financial content of those is crucial, but she also wants to teach students to be lifelong learners, appreciative of their strengths and equipped with feasible tools to improve their weaknesses. So she developed her own assignment to help juniors who were looking for internships. It was so successful that she expanded it to other classes as well, including an introduction-to-the university course for transfer students.

Barbara stages the assignment over the course of the semester. In the first week, students identify three skills that they feel are strengths and one—only one—they want to work on that semester. Focusing on developing one skill for a specific period of time is key to success and to avoid being overwhelmed.

She provides a list of skills to help them think broadly but also asks them to identify important skills they have that aren’t on the list. For example, one of her own skills is solving puzzles, whether those found in Sudoku or mystery novels. She’s never seen that skill highlighted, but it applies in many areas. For instance, it is invaluable in her work when she reads financial statements and digs into what is really happening in a company. In the same way, in response to the assignment, students have chosen to improve everything from Excel skills to their self-confidence.

Next, Barbara tasks the students with sharing a story that exemplifies their identified “strong” skill. While they only have to write one paragraph, she then gives copious feedback to prepare them to use the story in a job interview.

For instance, to exemplify her skill, one student wrote the following:

Furthermore, throughout the semester, students keep a journal to record any compliments they receive. In reviewing this list later, it is not only a tremendous morale booster, but students can see trends that they might not otherwise have noticed from day-to-day interactions. One student said she initially thought the journal was “hokey” but found that it, in fact, turned out to be very valuable.

Finally, at the end of term, students write a reflective essay on the whole experience. One wrote that she thought it was strange that they were doing so much self-reflection in a class that was quantitative and straight-forward, but by the end she realized that the “soft” skills “were absolutely essential” for success on group projects and could also be applied to many areas beyond the class.

Some students were able to see their desired skill enhanced in multiple classes, so their approach became more integrative. Indeed, one attributed his job offer to the preparation he had from this assignment. Another wrote that he previously avoided talking to people because he was an introvert but deliberately chose to talk to groups, advisers and professors for this assignment. He reported that he now feels much more comfortable talking with new people. Another young woman wrote, “This assignment forced me to take action on things that I knew I wanted and needed to do but probably would not have if just left up to me.”

Similarly, in one of Mary Anne’s second semester French courses, a student in neuroscience and French wrote: “No matter what career path I pursue, I will need to show my ability to work with others, to take reasonable critique from my peers and superiors, and to communicate in an effective manner. These were all strengthened in French II.” Another wrote about improving communication skills, collaborating with classmates, and pushing herself “out of [her] comfort zone both intellectually and culturally.” She appreciated this progress and believes it to be “easily transferable to many industries and extremely helpful in many contexts.”

Mary Anne also has held workshops with faculty members at her institution to help them understand transferable skills and develop an assignment they could use in one of their courses to guide students in reflecting on and articulating skills. More than one-fifth of the faculty, from many different fields, have attended those voluntary workshops, and many of them continue to share with her anecdotes and testimonials from students about the importance of skills emphasis.

Across disciplines, then, we have found that emphasizing skills in an explicit, purposeful and scaffolded way infuses the curriculum with a sense of utility and purpose. When we ask students to look into the mirror and observe and articulate their own development, they emerge from that experience hopeful, motivated, proud and, we believe, better educated. And they see the learning process as one that is meant to continue to be enjoyed and shared—to improve their present and future alike. It’s a perfect way to resume work after spring break, as it instills students with energy, perspective, enthusiasm and appreciation.