Measuring Changes in Groupworking Skills in Undergraduate Students After Employer Involvement in Group Skill Development

The issue of the teaching of transferable skills in UK higher education was set high on the educational agenda by the Dearing Report. The present study is part of a larger-scale project concerned with the development and assessment of groupworking skills through involving employers. It attempts to measure changes in groupworking skills and knowledge. Changes in groups receiving and not receiving employer feedback are compared. Results suggest that the two ways of measuring groupworking skills that were used in the study appear to be measuring different things. The experience of working on a group project appears to increase students' self-rating of their skills, in particular in problem-solving, communication and social relationship skills. Teams with a good knowledge of team processes appear to obtain high marks on the project reports, but do not rate themselves more highly on their skills.