Professional practice and construction undergraduates employability skills

Transferable skills are known to be valuable to undergraduates when entering the workplace and expected by employers, yet, as in many disciplines, these skills often are not well developed in undergraduates. However, construction professionals frequently work in complex dynamic environments and transferable skills may enhance their practitioner effectiveness. Therefore it is important tutors exploit opportunities to help undergraduates develop their transferable skills in readiness for the workplace. This paper examines the extent to which built environment undergraduates in a post-1992 university have opportunity to develop their transferable skills including through assessment and assessment feedback. Data was gathered from focus groups of students, interviews with tutors and written assessment feedback provided to students. Thematic analysis of the data was then undertaken. Findings suggest students have little understanding of transferable skills and tutors give limited attention to developing these, an examination of written feedback supported this latter, noting tutors major concerns were to develop students' subject knowledge and academic skills. It seems then that promoting development of built environment students' transferable skills is an underused aspect of undergraduate learning provision. This indicates the undergraduate experience may be enhanced via revision of the tutor-student dialogue to promote development of transferable skills and better prepare students for professional practice in the construction industry.