Transferable Intellectual and Personal Skills

Abstract

Although many employers recruit graduates, often on an any discipline basis, there is an apparent mismatch between employer needs and educational response.

Possession of a degree indicates ability to think at a certain level, but is insufficient. Selection criteria, advertisements and training courses run to make graduates fully effective show that employers need skills in communication, co‐operation and teamwork, and positive personal qualities such as the will to set and meet objectives and to be innovative also.

American experience indicates that although there is no complete and generally accepted classification of generic intellectual and personal skills, at least some are identifiable and are developed in the process of higher education. The College Outcomes Measures Project identified three ‘process areas’ (communicating, solving problems and clarifying values). The American Programme Evaluation Project identified communication, quantification, analytic and synthesising skills and values clarification. Some individual institutions have developed their own, useful, classifications and curricula which develop them. Efforts to improve these skills enhance both the academic work of the students and their employabil‐ity.

Interest in these areas in the UK is less advanced than in the United States and is piecemeal, but the UGC and NAB regard them as important.