Perspectives of generic skills among students of health professions and sciences

Introduction/background:
The importance of generic skills for the preparedness for work is well-reported in the literature—from perspectives of policymakers to those of employers and graduates—to cope in the rapidly changing, complex, uncertain and highly competitive employment sector. By ‘generic skills’ we mean the key skills and capabilities transferable to a wide range of tasks and contexts beyond the university setting (e.g. communication, critical thinking, team-working).
Aim/objectives:
To explore how students of health professions and sciences (a) perceive relative importance of targeted generic skills, (b) self-assess those skills, and (c) view the development of these skills in their study.
Methods:
This is an ongoing research. Students studying undergraduate and postgraduate courses at different year levels in the disciplines of health professions and sciences responded to an Online questionnaire incorporating the notion of graduate capital and a validated framework of industry-demanded skills.
Results:
Initial results highlighted that whilst students perceived importance of the targeted skills for their preparedness for work, they viewed having limited capabilities to perform most of those skills. They also viewed that their university studies made limited contributions to the development of those skills.
Discussion
The study provides evidence for the need for greater focus on the development of generic skills as part of better preparation for students for future work.
Conclusions:
A continual monitoring of, and reflecting on own performance of the generic skills would help students to take responsibility for their own skill development as well as developing a propensity for lifelong learning.