7. Skills and Learning Outcomes

The Royal Bank of Canada and the HEQCO studies both highlight that it is becoming increasingly important to define learning outcomes in terms of skills acquisition. Both these are valuable studies that identify some of the issues around developing the knowledge and skills that students will need to succeed, not just in the workforce, but in life generally in the last three-quarters of this century. However, the two reports have barely touched the tip of this particular iceberg. Neither for instance attempted to suggest how students can develop these skills or what instructors need to do to help students develop such skills.

When developing curricular, in terms of deciding not only what but also how to teach, we need to ask the following questions:

  1. Are programs identifying clearly the learning outcomes expected from a program of study?
  2. Do these learning outcomes sufficiently take into account skills as well as content/topics?
  3. Are these learning outcomes relevant for a digital society?

In other words, we have a major pedagogical challenge in several parts:

  • Identifying the most important soft skills that students will need (although the RBC report goes a little way in that direction)
  • Identifying the best way to teach such soft skills
  • Assessing students’ ability in soft skills (although the HEQCO report similarly goes a little way in that direction)
  • Identifying the extent to which soft skills are generalizable

The key point here is that content and skills are tightly related and as much attention needs to be given to skills development as to content acquisition to ensure that learners graduate with the necessary knowledge and skills for a digital age.