Using diverse professional teams and a graduate qualities framework to develop generic skills within a commerce degree

Abstract

This paper outlines the approach taken to use teams of diverse professionals and a Graduate Qualities framework to develop students' generic skills within a Bachelor of Commerce degree. The Graduate Qualities framework is closely aligned with the Professional Requirements of the Australian accounting professional bodies and the generic skills of the Australian Council for Educational Research. The pressure to embed the development of generic skills into university courses comes from three areas: the government, employers and the universities. With the impending trialing of Graduate Skills Assessment in universities, the increasing interest by the accounting profession to produce broader thinking graduates and universities' management to improve their institutional ratings, academics will be required to develop students' generic skills through the teaching and learning environment they provide in their subjects. This paper also outlines the changes implemented as an outcome of this process that resulted in students changing their behaviour, improving their generic skills and achieving higher learning outcomes in the subjects involved. This paper suggests that a subject development team composed of a diverse group of experts and the use of a Graduate Qualities framework will better enable subject coordinators to meet the increasing demands of the government, employers and the university to produce students with enhanced generic skills.