How to Teach Transferable Skills for Career Readiness

Employers today express a consistent concern that recent graduates lack the practical skills needed to succeed in today’s complex workplaces, underscoring an urgent need to rethink how we prepare students. More than technical knowledge, students need discipline-specific skills like communication, teamwork, and critical thinking. Yet, without formal training in teaching these “21st-century skills,” many faculty find it challenging to equip students for real-world demands. Embedding these skills into daily learning in a specific, intentional way can empower students to excel across diverse fields, from corporate offices to emergency rooms, by tailoring their preparation to meet the unique demands of each setting.

This Magna 20-Minute Mentor, led by Matthew Hora, PhD, redefines the notion of so-called “soft skills” by highlighting their distinct disciplinary and cultural elements, offering a fresh perspective for educators on the value and complexity of these skills.

Through this program, Hora shares proven instructional design principles that empower faculty to integrate transferable skills into their teaching. By following a teaching cycle of lecturing, demonstration, hands-on practice, and instructor feedback, faculty can make these skills part of their course structure. Hora provides examples from a range of disciplines, illustrating how these strategies work in practice and supporting faculty in building students’ career readiness. With practical tips for implementing this approach, faculty will leave equipped to bridge the skills gap and enhance their students’ success.

Learning Goals

After viewing this Magna 20-Minute Mentor, participants will be able to:

• Understand why dominant views of soft/generic skills misrepresent the disciplinary and cultural nature of human skill
• Apply this knowledge to re-imagine a skill in the their own discipline or profession
• Recognize the basic principles of instructional design
• Utilize this knowledge to consider revising their own lesson plans
• Evaluate the pros and cons of this approach for teaching transferable skills
• Pinpoint ways to approach implementing the approach in the field

Topics Covered

• A seven-step approach to effective teaching skills
• The myth of soft skills/generic competencies
• Basics of instructional design
• Creating an effective lesson or course
• Techniques for teaching transferable skills
• Tips for implementation in real-world classroom settings

Audience

This program will benefit:

• Faculty and Instructors
• Instructional Designers

Product Code: PM24RA