IMPRESS

Soft Skills

 

Part of a the student experience at university should be to prepare them for life after they leave in whatever employment they take. Students require not only a qualification but also a number of competencies around how well they relate and communicate to others. In the most progressive companies, managers are seeking for people's ability to communicate clearly and openly, and to listen and respond empathetically.  In today’s society, this also includes all forms of social networking and being able to collaborate with others and influence situations through lateral and more creative thinking. It is intended that all students should take specially designed personal skills courses, certificated by the university. The modus operandi will be to help  staff at the partner universities to prepare  courses in presentational and personal skills in the first year, trial the courses with a subset of students in the second year and run them fully and obligatory in the third year. Two staff from each partner university will be selected and visit Northumbria University which has great expertise in this area. They will also meet Shoofly to discuss the best way to deliver these courses using modern technology (podcasts, mobile Apps, Soc.Networking).

 

On return, these staff will train 2 more staff at their university making a total of 16  staff trained by the project on” a training the trainers” basis. The outputs of this work package will be new courses to aid the employability of students and staff who can deliver them. The outcome will be students leaving university will be better prepared for  life outside the university. In the final year, a report of what has been achieved will be prepared by the centre manager and passed to the management team for the Ministry.  The staff will also work with the centre manager to prepare and then implement Key Performance Indicators to assess the impact of their work and assist the Ministry to extend these ideas on a national scale.