Chemistry Student Perceptions of Transferable &amp; Workplace Skills Development

Dylan P Williams,Sandeep Handa

doi:10.29311/ndtps.v0i11.584

Chemistry Student Perceptions of Transferable & Workplace Skills Development

Dylan P Williams, Sandeep Handa

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.29311/ndtps.v0i11.584

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Abstract

The perceptions of transferable and workplace skills development of year one and two chemistry undergraduate students at the University of Leicester were measured using two questionnaires. This group of students is taught be a variety of approaches including Problem and Context Based Learning (C/PBL). Over 60% of respondents agreed that all discipline specific and transferable skills included in the first questionnaire were important skills for chemistry graduates to have. The perceived importance of most skills does not vary between year groups but there are small increases in perceived importance for most transferable skills. In a separate questionnaire, first year students were asked to rate their skills development following a series of Context and Problem Based Learning (C/PBL) activities. "problem solving", "time management", "working in a team“ and "oral communication" were the most developed skills based on student responses. This element of the study also provided evidence to suggest that students believe the “real-world”, authentic nature of C/PBL problems may be an important factor in determining the extent of skills development.Keywords: Transferable skills, Workplace skills, Employability, Chemistry education

Highlights

In 2010 a Higher Education Academy (HEA) report highlighted a gap between the skills being taught as part of chemistry degree programmes and the skills most commonly used by graduates of the subject (Hanson and Overton, 2010)
No distinction was made between transferable skills, theoretical chemical skills and practical skills in the questionnaire, we have chosen to categorise the skills in these groups for the purpose of this analysis (Figures 1 to 3)
It is possible that the increase in perceived importance of transferable skills and the simultaneous decrease in perceived importance of many theoretical chemistry skills may be due to some students recognising the fact that they want to follow a career path not related to the subject, greater levels of student awareness of employer expectations

Summary

Introduction

In 2010 a Higher Education Academy (HEA) report highlighted a gap between the skills being taught as part of chemistry degree programmes and the skills most commonly used by graduates of the subject (Hanson and Overton, 2010). C/PBL is a team-based approach (Savery & Duffy, 1995; Raine & Symons, 2005) which requires students to collaborate on the solution to an open-ended problem based on a realistic scenario (Honebein, et al, 1993; Engel, 1997). This approach lends itself to the development of transferable skills training in the core subject curriculum (Kelly and Finlayson, 2007) as it can help students make the transition from declaration of knowledge and solving algorithmic problems to developing solutions to

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