General transferable skills: Leeds Metropolitan University

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

Strategy and target group

The school of law provides three relevant courses; the LLB, the Postgraduate Diploma in Law (PGDL) and the Legal Practice Course (LPC). It is also involved in delivering a law access course to enable mature students to proceed to higher education.

The LPC develops the DRAIN skills (currently being reviewed). The skills are contextualised in the core subjects. They are developed across all subjects but are assessed in the context of a specific core. The intention is to contextualise the development of the skills while encouraging their transferability

For its academic courses the school has developed a list of relevant generic and specific skills. The LLB is currently being modified to give transferable skills a higher profile. One of the aims of the course is ‘to develop a range of intellectual, communicative, learning and technical skills which will foster self-reliance and enable the students to adapt flexibly to the employment market’.

Specific skills module or integration of skills?

The LPC course has an induction course in which students are introduced to the skills. The subsequent skills are developed and assessed in the context of the core subjects.

On the academic subjects, PGDL students are introduced to the skills as defined by the school in the context of their seminars. They have an induction course, which concentrates on legally oriented skills not transferable skills.

The LLB students take a compulsory double module in law and legal skills in level 1. In addition transferable skills are integrated throughout the curriculum. Skills are assessed on a pass/fail basis in the context of specific law modules, in addition to the substantive assessment for the module. Finally, employment skills and personal development skills are developed outside the structure of the LLB in additional sessions run by the careers tutor or the students’ academic supervisors. These are not assessed.

Students are encouraged to take part in voluntary activities such as mooting and negotiation exercises.

Learning support

Skills are integrated in other teaching. They are developed in seminars alongside the student’s study of the substantive legal topic on all courses run by the school of law.

The non-assessed skills on the LLB (employment and personal development) are developed in extra sessions.

There is a university study skills project which is currently developing online skills development material. In due course it is anticipated that some of this material will be integrated in the LLB.

Specific skills

In addition to the legally oriented skills developed in the compulsory law and legal skills double module, the following list of skills has been developed by the course team for the LLB:

• technical skills (IT as wordprocessing and research): assessed on a pass/fail basis in law and legal skills, European Union law and intellectual property (levels 1, 2 and 3)
• oral communication: assessed in obligations 2 and criminal law (levels 1 and 2)
• written communication: assessed in obligations 1 and property (levels 1 and 2)
• group working skills: assessed in public law (level 1)
• research skills: assessed in a range of options (level 3)
• problem-solving skills: assessed in equity and trusts (level 2) and a range of options (level 3)

Last Modified: 30 June 2010