Examining the Foundation: Scaffolding “soft” skills from entry to graduation in an undergraduate business program

Abstract

Critical thinking, creativity, communication, teamwork, emotional intelligence, problem-solving, empathy, resilience, ambition, grit, innovation... (Heckman & Kautz, 2012). These skills, known as a contentious four-letter “S” word (soft), are considered a requirement for employment and advancement for the 21st-century graduate (Carnevale & Smith, 2013). Within a School of Business, in an environment highly regarded for technical skill achievement in diploma and degree graduates, faculty set out to investigate the contentiousness and inclusion of human skills in curriculum outcomes. While not directly built into the curriculum, there is an institutional understanding that human skill development is innately a part of the programs. The intention is that human skills (LeBusque, 2020), or power skills (PMI, 2022) naturally occur during course delivery, creating a commonality across foundational courses to reinforce the skill sets identified, developed, and refined as students complete their credentials. However, industry reports (Lapointe & Turner, 2020; RBC, 2019) and the authors’ own institutional data collected from new graduates and employers indicated room for improvement in these skills. To gain a better understanding, the authors undertook a critical examination through a document analysis of all common core courses that form the program foundation. This involved 24 common courses, comprising 1,442-course objectives or outcomes, resulting in a range of 134 Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs. In this paper, the authors begin the first phase of this comprehensive study with a return to the course foundations. Through this analysis, the authors present a framework to better understand and strengthen the learning foundation, to proceed with realignment and strategic scaffolding of both technical and human skills from entry through graduation. Keywords: business education, skill development, course objectives, Bloom's Taxonomy, 21st-century graduate, document analysis