This blog explores how one tutorial activity transformed how our Year 1 students engaged with the Bristol Skills Profile.
Many students struggle to recognise that the skills they develop throughout their degree extend far beyond subject knowledge. While they may become confident in analysing data, solving subject specific problems or working in groups, they often don’t recognise these as valuable employability skills or know how to articulate them to employers.
During the 2025/2026 academic year, we embedded the Bristol Skills Profile (BSP) into our Year 1 tutorial programme for the first time. This had one simple aim: to help students make those connections. The results were encouraging. Engagement with the BSP increased from 19% of the Year 1 cohort in 2024/25 to 69% in 2025/26, with many students choosing to return to review their skills later in the year. More importantly, the discussions shifted from simply completing a skills audit to recognising how their learning was preparing them for life beyond university.
Embedding the BSP into Year 1 tutorials
As Year 1 Director within the School of Geographical Sciences, I was redesigning our Academic Personal Tutoring (APT) programme to provide more structured, discipline-specific support while also helping students develop into confident, highly employable graduates. The BSP provided an ideal framework to support these conversations.
Early in Semester 1 (Week 2), students completed their first BSP skills check. Rather than asking them to complete it independently, we worked through it together during tutorials. I structured the session around the three BSP themes:
- What will I learn?
- What will I be able to do?
- What will I become?
For each section, we paused to discuss what the different skills actually meant in the context of studying Geography. For example, what do academic skills look like at university? How do they differ from the skills students developed at school or college? These conversations helped students interpret the questions more confidently before completing the BSP on MySkills.
Making the connection between subject learning and employability
The most valuable discussions came after students had completed the skills check.
Together, we explored where these skills were being developed within the Year 1 curriculum by looking directly at unit Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs). This was made possible following work done across the school to ensure all ILOs were linked to the BSP framework and that this was visible in the unit catalogue.
By searching for each unit on the unit catalogue and comparing the ILOs to the areas students had identified as being weaker on the BSP, they were able to identify exactly where opportunities existed to improve their skills. Rather than seeing subject knowledge and employability skills as separate, students began mapping disciplinary learning onto the broader capabilities described within the BSP.
For example, the learning outcome “Collate digital geographical data, summarise and display it in graphical and map form” for one of the mandatory Y1 units ‘Introduction to Quantitative Geography’, allowed students to identify links with Skill 9 – Ready for the Future, through developing confidence with digital tools, and Skill 3 – Knowledge Handling, through analysing and presenting data.
This simple mapping exercise helped students recognise that they were developing transferable skills every time they engaged with their academic work, even in Y1.
Revisiting the BSP throughout the year
The BSP didn’t become a one-off tutorial exercise.
I returned to students’ results during later one-to-one tutorials to help identify areas where additional support might be beneficial and to signpost students towards services such as Study Skills or Disability Services where appropriate.
One unexpected benefit was the inclusion of wellbeing within the BSP. Framing wellbeing as a skill that can be developed, rather than something students either have or don’t have, helped normalise conversations about seeking support and created opportunities for more open discussions about accessing help when needed.
What changed?
Following the introduction of the redesigned tutorial programme, engagement with the BSP increased from 19% of the Year 1 cohort in 2024/25 to 69% in 2025/26. Students completed an average of 1.19 skills checks, suggesting that around one in five students who completed an initial review returned to reflect on their development later in the year.
Although it is too early to draw conclusions about longer-term impacts on students’ skills literacy or graduate outcomes, these early findings are encouraging. They suggest that embedding the BSP within structured tutorial conversations, rather than presenting it as a standalone activity, encourages students to engage more meaningfully with their own skills development. We also saw a distinct uptick in student engagement with optional career events within the school, with one career session being attended by over 80% of the Y1 cohort.
We are now building on this work through a BILT Education Development Project, exploring how students understand, develop and articulate their skills throughout their degree and beyond.
Reflections
Looking back, I think the success of this approach came from making the BSP part of an ongoing conversation rather than a one-off task. The tutorial sessions encouraged students to discuss, question and apply the language of skills to their own learning, helping them bridge the gap between disciplinary knowledge and employability.
The mapping activity, in particular, encouraged students to recognise that the work they were already doing within their degree was helping them develop the capabilities needed beyond university. By making these connections explicit, the BSP became more than a reflective exercise—it became a practical tool for helping students understand who they are becoming through their studies.
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