Mapping transversal skills
Professional (transversal) skills are career competences that are not specific to a particular job, task, discipline or are of knowledge. They are skills that can be used in variety of work settings, and as such are necessary for engineering graduates’ successful transition into future jobs.
STEM professions often need to deal with great social, technical and environmental complexities, and the demand for broadly educated, holistic graduates will only continue to grow in the future.
Being able to manage and lead diverse teams, understand complex, interdisciplinary systems, and solve open-ended problems across and beyond different subjects is expected from the next generation of graduates.
A series of studies were developed under this initiative, all under the same project aim: to understand and connect the pieces of curriculum at EPFL.
The work done under the umbrella of examining professional skills integration was done through studying curricular material, collecting students’ and coaches’ opinions through surveys and interviews, analyzing interdisciplinary MAKE projects, and mapping examples of good practices across the institution.
This was a collaborative effort between several departments and programs: the Center LEARN’s internal mission team, the Teaching Support Center (CAPE), the Center for Career and Transversal Skills (CCTC) and the Discovery Learning Program (DLP).
This work is part I of analyzing professional skills. Find out more below:
I. Mapping Transversal skills
II. Making learning explicit: using a portfolio approach for integrating transversal skills into the engineering curriculum
III. Transversal Skills and Portfolios
Related lunch&LEARN sessions
- lunch&LEARN: Students’ Learning and Development of Transversal Skills Through a Training Portfolio Approach (watch on YouTube)
- lunch&LEARN: Transversal Skills: Where we are and where we are going (watch on YouTube)
- lunch&LEARN: Which professional skills do students learn in engineering team-based projects? (watch on YouTube)
