Abstract:

The Higher Education mission of preparing graduates for the labour market goes beyond the technical and scientific issues, and much has been said about the importance of soft and transversal skills. Even if off the curriculum, Higher Education Institutions are developing programs aiming to help students and graduates foster their career development.

This project was conducted at ISCAP (Porto Accounting and Business School at Polytechnic of Porto) in collaboration with its Alumni and Career Office. The goal was to create a program to develop employability skills, specifically a public speaking skills development program.

Based on a theoretical analysis of different disciplines and an empirical study of several techniques a pilot edition was prepared. It was then projected that the program would have 3 main strands: group sessions, individual sessions using virtual reality and, theoretical support information.

After the program calendar and organization broadcast, eight participants were selected from among 22 applications. During and after the program implementation, self and peer evaluations were conducted, and the facilitator's opinion was considered.

The practical sessions of the program pushed the participants into adverse situations which were conducive to developing their skills, as verified by the results obtained in the final evaluation.

All participants stated that they improved their public speaking skills due to the program. They also mentioned that they could use their public speaking skills in other areas of their lives. Overall, they felt that the program met their expectations and, would recommend it to others interested in developing their public speaking skills. In the implementation phase of the program there was some lack of attendance and commitment on the part of some of the participants and the Virtual Speech app used did not allow us to give all the desired feedback.

In conclusion, the intervention project effectively demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of using Virtual Reality and peer evaluation dynamics in developing public speaking skills among the participants. The strategic planning and thorough operational execution contributed to the overall success of the program, as reflected in the positive feedback from the participants. This initiative underscores the potential for such programs to enhance employability skills, providing a valuable model for similar future projects. Recommendations for future implementation improvements are also given.

Keywords:

Transversal skills program, Public-speaking, Virtual reality, Life-long learning, Technology in teaching and learning.