Proposal

This project will put in place processes to encourage students to take responsibility for developing generic attributes required for future employment, and the mechanisms to allow students to self-assess the development of these attributes during the duration of a degree program. The project will build on the work of the 2002 pilot program (Faculty of Science Skills Awareness Program), and take into account the difficulties encountered.

The target group
In the long term, the project outcomes will be delivered to all undergraduate on-campus students from Faculty of Science degree programs. In 2003 segments of the project will be trialled using a small group of students from one of the larger degree programs.

Goals of the project
To help students develop a suitable set of attributes by the time they graduate, this project has the immediate goals of:

• developing clear explanations of the core generic attributes;
• defining levels of competence for the generic attributes;
• providing students with a framework to understand the nature of the core generic attributes by incorporating them in a series of illustrative case scenarios;
• helping students learn the language of these attributes so that they can identify them in curricula; and
  

• helping students identify from their learning experiences opportunities to develop desirable attributes;
• developing a mechanism for students to self-assess their awareness of and competence in the various attributes;
• developing a set of guidelines for staff to help them to identify skill development opportunities for students within the curricula; and
• offering recommendations to Faculty about how to mandate an audit process whereby students self-assess and keep a personal record of their development.

Timeline

January	Planning
	Selection and explanation of attributes and skills
	Development of model
February - June	Definition of levels of competence
	Design of scaffolding
	Development of case scenarios
	Development of typical tasks and case studies
	Mechanism for self-assessment
	Mechanism for personal audit
July - October (i.e. 2nd semester)	Pilot
	Evaluation
November	Recommendations to Faculty

Methodology

The project consists of the following steps:
Preliminary phase:

• Literature review
• Identification of University of Sydney graduate attributes
• Identification of existing generic attributes projects at the University of Sydney
• Identification of generic attributes projects at other universities
• Establishment of a Skills Reference Group
• Articulation of related language used by employers

• Articulation of generic attributes and skills to be included in the project
• Definition of levels of competence within the attributes and skills
• Identification of opportunities within degree programs where skills may be practiced
• Identification of ways to integrate add-on and embedded generic skills into curricula
• Articulation of the scaffolding for students to make linkages relating to generic attributes
• Development of language-related case scenarios
• Documentation of typical tasks
• Articulation of student benchmarking opportunities
• Articulation of process for student personal audit

• Pilot

• Evaluation of project
• Documentation of project and reporting of outcomes

Status

Status report No. 1 [PDF]

Status report No. 2 [PDF]

Status report No. 3 [PDF]

Status report No. 4 [PDF]

Status report No. 5 [PDF]

Status report No.6

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