An Integrated Professional and Transferable Skills Course for Undergraduate Chemistry Students

Abstract

Upon graduation, chemistry majors often find themselves inadequately prepared for the “real world” that awaits them when they join the workplace. Some employers find chemistry graduates lacking written- and oral-communication skills, critical-thinking skills, group-work skills, as well as the ability to efficiently analyze data and retrieve chemical information. To address these deficiencies, we developed an undergraduate chemistry course that focuses on professional and transferable skills and have incorporated it into the chemistry curriculum. Two specific hands-on examples to effectively teach students data acquisition and manipulation from a chemistry perspective are described. This course received positive feedback from students and gave them skills that helped them not only during their chemistry education, but also when they entered the workforce. Universities that do not have a similar course should consider adopting and incorporating it in their curricula.