Running pilots has been a key part of the preparation for rolling out the Bristol Skills Profile across the University. Many of these ran in 2022/23, and they provided great opportunities for the profile to develop, and the support and resources around it to take shape.
I took over leading the curricular pilots towards the end of the academic year, and I wanted to use this blog post to share some of my observations and learnings, and introduce some of the work the Faculty Employability team are doing to support academic colleagues embed the Bristol Skills Profile.
Being early adopters of something can be challenging, and while we weren’t able to see all the pilots through, some key lessons were learnt.
My Skills can provide a structure for reflection
Whether students do it in or out of class time, using My Skills at different stages of a unit provided a structure for reflection, which can help students that find reflection difficult. It helps students see the wider benefits of the activity and recognise the developmental opportunities in real-time.
In the Business School, Management students completed the self-assessment during and at the end of an 80-hour placement. Comparing the first and second completions helped students think about the skills they developed, and the skills statements provided space for them to capture examples before they were forgotten. This unit ran across the academic year, with around 30 students taking part.
In Engineering, MSc Engineering with Management students completed the skills-check twice, as part of a four-part professional development programme. While not credit bearing, this is an integral part of the programme with around 80 students. With a large international cohort, this pilot gave us a great opportunity to see some of the challenges students with English as a second language had with the statements used, and was a big driver behind the simplified language that is now part of the self-assessment.
As the profile becomes more embedded, it would be great to see My Skills providing a structure for reflection at programme level. This is being looked at with the development of the new BSc Business Analytics programme.
The Bristol Skills Profile is more than My Skills
Having a platform where students can do a self-assessment, log their development and access resources is great, but that’s just one way they can benefit.
With Music, we saw how the skills can be used as the basis of a discussion around academic skills in seminars. Delivered by GTAs, first year students were asked to identify which skills from the profile they felt they were developing as part of their academic skills sessions. As the discussion was completed in a group setting, students were able to benefit from peer learning and hearing examples of how others have developed their skills.
A similar approach has been taken this year in Geography with students undertaking a Community Engaged learning project. Incorporating a discussion about which skills they are hoping to develop helped to get them thinking about what they want to get out of their project work experience.
There is work to do to align with professional frameworks, but clear overlap
A number of conversations during the pilots touched on the courses that already work to professional frameworks, and how the Bristol Skills Profile can complement these without overburdening students. It has been positive to see lots of overlap in the skills professional bodies are looking for and the skills in the Bristol Skills Profile. The actual mapping is taking more time as the resources and SharePoint pages of the Bristol Skills Profile have only come live this academic year, but it’s a positive area of development.
How the Faculty Employability Team can help
As the rollout of the Bristol Skills Profile continues, the resources available to academic staff will continue to build and develop. As a starting point we have resources on the Knowledge Hub (sharepoint.com) and you can join the Teams site for more informal information and support.
The Faculty Employability Team are starting to work with academics across the university to identify ways of embedding the Bristol Skills Profile in the curriculum. Do get in touch if we can help.
More about the Bristol Skills Profile
To develop strong scholars and prepare students for their future, we have identified nine skills that we want all students to develop during their time at Bristol. This is an important part of our University vision, ensuring students gain the future skills needed to thrive in a changing world.
The Bristol Skills Profile is made up of nine skills and categorised using Barnett and Coate’s educational model of ‘knowing, acting and being’ (Barnett and Coate, 2005. Engaging the Curriculum in Higher Education. Open University Press).
Find out more: Introducing the Bristol Skills Profile – Bristol Institute for Learning and Teaching Blog (bilt.online)
