General transferable skills: University of Liverpool

(Transcript of a section of the General transferable skills report, 1998)

Strategy and target group

Have in the past been concerned mainly with legal and IT skills, but are currently introducing a bespoke skills course aimed more at transferable skills. Approach is to provide students with a humane and liberal education. The skills are not specifically assessed, but are inherent in the assessments that students have to complete.

Specific skills module or integration of skills?

Introducing legal skills course for first year students, which will be built upon through the degree programme. There will also be a specific mooting option for students in the second and third years.

Learning support

The skills module to be introduced next year will deal specifically with problem-solving skills among other things. Presently students who have specific problems are dealt with on an adhoc basis – as and when they need the help – through their academic or personal tutor. There is also some university-wide support providing students with study skills and exam skills programmes.

Specific skills

The employment law module provides an illustration of the way in which skills are integrated into existing modules. Tribunals and groupwork are two such examples. As part of the employment law module students attend an industrial tribunal and prepare a written report on the visit itself. Again employment law, along with other subjects, require students to work in groups of 2-3 to pool resources and present their work on a particular topic.

Other skills include mooting and information technology. There is an extracurricular mooting competition, and a mooting option is also soon to be introduced for second and third years.

Information technology is important to the extent that they have an IT module which primarily introduces students to a wordprocessing package, but also includes instruction on accessing legal databases and the Internet in addition to use of their own homepage. They are also in the process of introducing more practical exercises to allow students to demonstrate their understanding of accessing a file on the network, by for example the lecturers placing coursework on the Internet as well as requiring students to transfer/send documents by e-mail.

Last Modified: 30 June 2010