Enhancing Employability Super Skills among University Students: Educational Design Research about an Employability Course Design Solution

Today, an employee or entrepreneur must not only demonstrate competence in his or her field of study, but also in soft skills such as communication, motivation, initiative, and leadership. Thus, it is beneficial to consider whether graduating master’s degree holders possess the necessary soft skills that are needed at work today. This research discusses graduates’ employability skills to answer the following question:

How can students’ super skills of employability (communication skills, motivation/initiative skills, and leadership skills) be enhanced by using feedback, reflection, and experiential learning course?

The research for this thesis was conducted at the University of Lapland and produced a new definition of graduate employability and model. The research approach used in this research is educational design research (EDR). The research was conducted in two iterations namely Phase I and Phase II in which a course designed to enhance students’ employability super skills was implemented and evaluated for further development.

The participants were master’s degree students from the General Education and Arts Faculties at the University of Lapland. Fifteen students in two phases participated in the course. The data was collected in the form of student reflections, feedback, observation notes, and interviews. Content analysis was used to analyse the data.

The data was analysed and divided into categories for each super skill. In the communication skills category, the four main qualities that were found to be essential are listening, building trust, reflection, and inclusion. The four main skills that helped enhance students’ motivation and initiative super skills are cooperation, participation, preparation, and experiential learning. Lastly, qualities that helped students enhance their leadership skills are listening, acceptance, understanding, and growth. The model ‘SkillCraft: A Curiosity-Enhanced Employability Super Skills SCESS’ is a second design solution and an outcome of this research. The research, furthermore, provides a deeper understanding of the conceptual connection about the employability super skills and provides practical tools for developing them during university education.