Workplace skills

Advice on how to help students develop employability skills for the 21st century workplace, covering classroom activities, real-world experience, career advice and authentic learning models that aid graduates in the transition to professional careers. These resources look at what are the most sought-after graduate attributes and future skills today and how best to teach them within a university. 

Man tries to find his way through a maze

What students need to learn beyond the curriculum

Universities cannot assume students know how to engage in self-directed study and campus life. Clear direction and signposting can help arrivals flourish inside and outside the classroom, colleagues at Manchester Metropolitan University write

Katharina De Vita, Lucy Pittaway, Melanie McHale

Manchester Metropolitan University

A hand pulling out a book from a library shelf

Helping students find and learn from high-quality sources

From celebrating your university library to demonstrating your own source selection process, learn strategies to help students confront increasing misinformation and disinformation online

Tom Hayward

UCL

Two students have fun recording a podcast

Listen up: why audio assessment needs better design

Without intention, an assessment based on podcasting can end up confusing students. Here’s why intention is key

Eleanor Roseblade

University of Westminster

A group of students wearing green t shirts discussing a sustainability initiative

A beginner’s guide to systems thinking in education for sustainable development

Systems thinking can better equip students to engage with sustainability challenges. It helps to treat it as a competence and a journey, says Fatima Lopez Castellanos

Fatima Lopez Castellanos

The University of Bristol

How to make interdisciplinary teaching a reality

While disciplinary expertise remains important, future graduates will increasingly need broader capabilities to cope with uncertainty and change. Lei Zeng offers advice on how to develop them

Lei Zeng

The University of Manchester

Architecture students inspecting plans on a board

Memorable teaching doesn’t just transfer knowledge – it transforms perspective

Educators may often ask themselves how to make teaching more engaging. A better question is how to create learning experiences that fundamentally change the way students think

Andrew Gipe-Lazarou

Virginia Tech

Instead of producing finished graduates, aim to build adaptable people

Employers aren’t looking for perfect specialists. It’s up to higher education to give graduates the skills to navigate uncertainty

Nicolas Klotz

Al Akhawayn University

Want industry speakers? Get them in early

Guest speakers offer an informed, personal perspective on their discipline and a chance for learners to make an in-person connection that a recording cannot replicate. Here’s how to maximise the benefits and get students to turn up

Treasa Kearney, Anna Egan

University of Liverpool, Manchester Metropolitan University

Two lab workers discussing something on a screen

Paid research internships can level the playing field for bioscience students

Research experience is invaluable – but only if students can afford to take part. Learn about a scheme that supports under-represented students

Richard Bowater, Carl Harrington, Anne Graham, Cathie Martin

The University of East Anglia

Build a supportive learning community for graduate apprentices

Graduate apprentices are often split between campus and workplace, their status between student and employee. Here’s how to foster psychological safety between cohorts

Gary Gillon, Alan MacDonald, Elaine Jackson

University of the West of Scotland

A team of coders brainstorming in front of a large code-filled screen

How a university coding competition develops future skills

How to create a pressure cooker environment that forces rapid problem-solving and collaboration among students from different disciplines

Oğuz Şentürk

Istanbul Aydin University

Digital heart among locks, ones and zeros on keyboard

‘Higher education needs more of the empathetic mindset’

Empathy, listening and imagination must remain central to how we educate future leaders, writes Lu Liu. The human qualities that make innovation meaningful are at risk when universities over-emphasise technical capability

Lu Liu

Virginia Tech

A woman walking up a leafy green structure extending up into the sky

Why AI makes a growth mindset fundamental for university students

How to encourage students to use AI as a reflective learning partner to strengthen weaknesses and respond to instructor feedback

Ana Li Zhong

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

Medical students talk in a university corridor

Connecting the institutional dots for workforce readiness

Collaboration is proving critically important for changing workforce needs in the healthcare sector. Here’s how to make it part of your university’s culture

Walaa Awad

Colorado State University Global

How to set your students up to write compelling op-eds

Help students develop their writing and refine their arguments by publishing opinion pieces. Find advice for supporting student writers here

Arafat Reza, Shahariar Sadat

BRAC University’s Centre for Peace and Justice

A student discusses options with a careers support advisor

Embed career readiness throughout a student’s journey

Instead of a stand-alone service, career support should be part of a larger academic ecosystem that begins at orientation. Here’s how to implement it

Angel Iverson, Julia Vollrath, Alison Noonan

University of Florida

How to show students’ learning beyond grades: a five-step process

Teaching success should not rely solely on pass rates or student satisfaction. Here’s how to gather evidence that students understand, apply and transfer what they learned

Anabel Campaña

Universidad del Caribe (UNICARIBE)

Adding an E to an MBA: what an ‘executive’ rebrand costs in real terms

Renaming an MBA an EMBA sounds like a branding tweak. It isn’t. Here’s what we learned about stakeholder buy-in, message sequencing and what a single letter can mean

Ekant Veer, Teresa van Dugteren

University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha

Students sitting together in the library

Rethinking critical thinking in the age of algorithms

How to help students build a three-stage daily habit that interrogates both online sources and the systems that surface them

Temi Odusanya

Robert Gordon University

A psychology student providing counselling to a patient in a clinic

The role of work-based learning in psychology education

By offering choice and emotional support, educators can prepare students for a range of psychology careers. Learn how

Kalum Bodfield, Emma Tarpey, Melissa Pilkington, Aspasia Eleni Paltoglou

Manchester Metropolitan University

Will China’s push to bring higher education closer to industry fix its skills mismatch?

Despite 12 million graduates entering the job market, Chinese companies still lack highly skilled candidates, writes Gerard A. Postiglione. Here, he looks at how the country’s universities are addressing employment and what its strategies can offer other higher education systems

Gerard A. Postiglione

The University of Hong Kong

Six assessment types that support deep, real-world learning

If traditional assessment methods feel limited, Temesgen Kifle shares alternative ways to measure students’ understanding and ability to apply learning to authentic problems

Temesgen Kifle

The University of Queensland

Why subject-aligned career talks matter – and how to deliver them

Discipline-focused careers talks bring the labour market and recruitment practices into the classroom in a way that is based on speakers’ personal stories and experiences

Emilie Rutledge, Merim Baitimbetova

The Open University

Three business professionals standing in an office and smiling to camera

What skills will help students thrive in the job market of the 2030s?

Students will need a skills-focused mindset as GenAI absorbs entry-level jobs. Here, Raphael Dennett and Lisa Harris share lessons from developing a module that prepares undergraduates for a radically different start to their professional lives

Raphael Dennett, Lisa Harris

The University of Exeter

A group of multicultural students in the classroom

Help students become language mediators to bridge knowledge gaps

How mediation, translanguaging and a class contract can develop understanding, prevent clashes and promote appreciation for diversity in multilingual classrooms

Mazal Oaknín

UCL

University students working individually at their desks

Five pillars of collaborative online learning

How to promote interaction, a sense of collective responsibility and reflective practices to prevent students from ‘dividing and conquering’ in group projects

Mariana Elizondo, Elizabeth Marcial Morales

Tecnológico de Monterrey

Male and female engineers consulting on a work site

The global STEM workforce is multilingual. Is your institution keeping up?

English may dominate research and industry, but engineers increasingly work across languages, cultures and markets. Universities that recognise multilingualism as a professional asset will better prepare graduates for the realities of global practice

Sarah L. Rodriguez

Virginia Tech

Black female professional working at computer

How to integrate AI-enabled lifelong learning across disciplines

The traditional boundary between a traditional degree and active professional development has permanently dissolved, writes Tim Brown. AI skills need to be taught in a similarly joined-up way

Tim Brown

Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities

Young male student raising hand in class

‘Trust in their own judgement is something we cannot teach our students’

Students new to formal finance education need space to make mistakes and a learning environment that includes uncertainty, risk and emotions, writes Manjari Sharma

Manjari Sharma

Christ (Deemed to be University)

Students using card and paper to create models in class

Software engineers with people skills grow from cardboard cities

Sometimes the best way to teach software engineering is to step away from the computer. Learn how to deliver a cardboard building activity that replicates a software development lifecycle

Nanlin Jin

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

A phone interface with a chatbot conversation open

How to let students fail – so they can bounce back

If we’re preparing students for the outside world, they need to be resilient and agile. Here’s how AI avatars could help

Yvonne Kong-Ho

Singapore Institute of Technology

The best way to teach students to think critically about AI? Make them argue with it

Educators might treat AI as an integrity problem, but employers don’t. They need graduates who can decide when to trust the machine – and when not to. And that’s why you should design assessment that forces students to argue against AI

Reihaneh Bidar

The University of Queensland

When students stop asking: ‘Is this on the exam?’

What happens when you trade exams for real clients, real problems and real deadlines? Dina Kamel outlines the benefits of unscripted problem-solving

Dina Kamel

The University of Portsmouth

Female designer working with AI chat bot and an editing software - stock photo

AI use tailored to creative-industry programmes requires institution-wide support

Students working towards creative careers have mixed feelings about AI and its potential effects on their job prospects. So education must consider the best practice in the application of tools but also teach students design fundamentals

Shushma Patel

De Montfort University

Black man working at computer using AI chatbot

A framework for ensuring student AI proficiency

The question is no longer whether students will use AI after graduation but to what extent. So, how can universities best ensure that students are workforce-ready?

Margaret Ellis

Virginia Tech

Two happy young students hugging each other on graduation day

We need to teach ‘uncommon sense’

How playful exercises in an intersession course can improve judgement, foster probabilistic thinking and help students stand out in an uncertain job market

William R. Brody

Johns Hopkins University

Turning student data into student success

Data alone will not ensure effective student support. From careers to well-being and disability services, using it successfully requires collaboration between academic and professional services, training and shared accountability, writes Aleata Alstad-Calkins

Aleata Alstad-Calkins

University of Roehampton

‘Employability is more than getting a job’

Careers services go beyond preparing students for immediate graduate positions. They equip students to navigate their professional lives over time, to progress and adapt through change. Gemma Kenyon explains the nuances of delivering employability at scale

Gemma Kenyon

City St George’s, University of London

Two students using a map to navigate a digital world

Boosting AI literacy across your institution

AI literacy goes far beyond basic prompt writing. Learn strategies for building understanding of how AI tools work, how to use them effectively to support teaching, learning and research, where their limitations lie and the ethical implications surrounding their use

Campus contributors, Laura Duckett

Campus

A group of students sitting at a table in the library

Build AI and information literacy through targeted library support

How student-centred AI literacy programmmes can build confidence, critical thinking and playful learning

Amy McEwan, Isobel Eddyshaw, Jenny McGarvey

The University of Exeter

What if the undergraduate journey were a four-year internship?

Treating work placements and co-curricular programmes as optional or supplementary misses deeper questions about whether traditional degrees prepare students for careers. Michelle Seref explains

Michelle Seref

Virginia Tech

Students and a professor in class discussing AI

Why AI literacy must be discipline specific

A one-size-fits-all approach to AI training risks leaving students unprepared for the discipline-specific demands of their future careers. Rose Luckin explores what field-specific AI literacy looks like in practice

Rose Luckin

UCL

Two students sitting at a table discussing a GenAI prompt

A research-led approach to teaching GenAI prompt design

Strategies to transform student interactions with GenAI from one-line questions to robust prompts that yield reliable results and improve critical thinking skills

Mogeeb A. A. Mosleh

University of Science and Technology (Yemen)

Young black woman and older woman working on logistics

Assessing students when artificial intelligence is ubiquitous

If we continue to prioritise memorisation in an age of wall-to-wall information, we send the wrong message to our students and employers. Michelle Seref offers advice on assessment that builds critical thinking skills

Michelle Seref

Virginia Tech

How to start reimagining assessments authentically

What does authentic assessment really look like? Through real-world tasks, meaningful application and core knowledge and skills, it supports deeper learning and a more accurate measure of students’ understanding

Karen Bunch Franklin

Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities

Why AI literacy belongs in the first-year experience

Embedding AI literacy early ensures every student gains essential understanding of systems, ethics and responsible use, closing gaps left by optional or uneven provision. Learn how

Leocadia I. Zak

Agnes Scott College

Young black woman looking at screen with help from older black woman, job shadow concept

Five steps to prepare neurodivergent students for the world of work

Students with neuro-cognitive conditions often face significant challenges when making the transition into the workplace. So, how can higher education institutions ensure these students are ready to launch their professional lives?

Sophie Hennekam, Barbara Haddou

Audencia

Hand stopping a line of dominoes falling

When the business plan becomes a performance

Under conventional assessment models in entrepreneurship, continuation of a venture is rewarded and optimism reads as competence, write Ian Solway and Jolyon Nott. But students should be required to demonstrate judgement, not projected success

Ian Solway, Jolyon Nott

University of Southampton

From theory to judgement: using role play to assess students’ decision-making skills

Students can explain theories. But can they challenge them? A structured role-play approach helps assess critical thinking, professional judgement and decision-making – skills that traditional assessments often miss

Angela Christidis

The University of Exeter

How should universities define AI proficiency?

AI literacy is increasingly seen as fundamental knowledge for students. How can educators set the parameters that ensure proficient use of artificial intelligence across the institution, regardless of discipline? Junghwan Kim offers advice

Junghwan Kim

Virginia Tech

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