Abstract:

Despite the importance of Transferable Skills (TS) for enhanced employability, a skill gap has been reported between skills developed at university and those required at the workplace. Studies on students’ and graduates’ perceptions on TS show considerable variation. In most cases, students consider TS as highly important but rate low their own TS capabilities. Employers tend to value TS over subject knowledge. To date, only few studies delved into the student perceptions and educational approaches in particular for Health and Life Sciences (HLS). It has been however reported that undergraduate HLS programs focus mostly on the delivery of subject facts, and it is assumed that students will obtain other skills on the way.

Our study aimed at investigating HLS students'/graduates’ perceptions regarding TS in a comparative way for three countries (UK, Greece, Germany) and against career level (undergraduates/postgraduates/professionals). An online questionnaire was circulated within Queen’s University Belfast and other Universities via various online channels. The final study cohort was comprised by both HLS professionals and students (n=228) with an overrepresentation of Life scientists (70%) over medical students/graduates.

Interestingly, over 50% of undergraduates declared low or no understanding of the term TS while more than half of professionals were highly aware of the term. Our data indicate that students gained analytical/research, communication and teamwork skills which were further enhanced at postgraduate level. However, management skills seem to be gained to some extend only at postgraduate level. Importantly, both junior and experienced participants mentioned the lack of leadership skills development opportunities.

Teamwork was shown to be the top acquired TS. More than 80% of the participants across subgroups argued that during their undergraduate studies they gained the ability to collaborate with others and to work in groups, although, they lacked the ability to train others. With the exception of teamwork, a low confidence for other acquired TS was noted.

The vast majority of participants perceived that TS would be more important in their future employment, than biomedical knowledge and subject-relevant practical skills. In particular, communication, management and leadership skills are perceived as of very high importance for career development.
When we stratified responses per country, we distinguished major differences in terms of TS term understanding and the level of built expertise per category. We observed also that from student perspective, UK universities offer more TS-related development opportunities in their curricula in comparison to Germany and Greece.

Although TS training is now embedded in many HEIs, training alone may not be enough to enable a smooth transition from university to workplace. Our data underscore the importance of integrating TS modules as well as non-classroom-based learning opportunities (i.e. placements) for enhancing employability and confidence of HLS graduates in parallel with building subject-related skills and knowledge. Altogether, our research provides important novel insights on students' and graduates' perceptions in HLS.

Keywords:

Transferable Skills, Health and Life Sciences, Higher Education, Teaching transferable competences, undergraduates, postgraduates, biology, medicine.