Launch of Explore marks major milestone in roll out of Kingston University’s Future Skills programme

As the new academic year gets into full swing, thousands of Kingston University students are set to become the first in the United Kingdom to benefit from the latest phase of its sector-leading Future Skills programme. Alongside their subject-specific learning, from September all second-year undergraduates will be taking part in Explore as part of the University’s ground-breaking approach to preparing them for career success.

From engaging in live briefs set by employers to taking part in assessment centre simulations, Explore will build on the knowledge and experience gained by students during the initial Navigate phase of the programme, introduced across all first-year courses last year.

Business collaboration adds extra boost

Industry involvement will bring an extra dimension to the students’ learning during the eagerly anticipated second phase of the University’s Future Skills roll out.

All second-year students completing Explore will benefit from personal development workshops as well as involvement in a simulated assessment centre to help hone their skills in readiness for the graduate recruitment process. They will also take part in a Future Skills Explore experience, providing industry-relevant learning that explicitly develops their graduate attributes. The variety of opportunities on offer will include working on live briefs set by employers or community groups, problem-solving innovation events called hackathons, placements, work shadowing or site visits to businesses.

Transforming teaching

Widely respected for championing the vital importance of skills for innovation in driving a thriving economy, Kingston University has been transforming its teaching by embedding Future Skills as a key part of every undergraduate course across all subject areas.

Informed by research conducted in conjunction with YouGov, the programme has been designed to ensure students acquire nine key attributes by the time they graduate. They include creative problem solving, digital competency, adaptability, being enterprising, having a questioning mindset, empathy, collaboration, resilience and self-awareness. Students are assessed on their progress as they complete each stage of the programme.

With the launch of Explore, more than 70 per cent of Kingston University’s undergraduate students would now be studying Future Skills as a core part of their degrees, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education Professor John Craig said. “The University is committed to transforming the student experience at pace to ensure our graduates are equipped with the future-proofed, human-centred skills employers most value,” he said, “Embedding industry-facing experiences into every student’s learning outcomes through the Explore phase of Future Skills will be a significant boost for their employability in the longer term.”

Influencing government policy

The University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Steven Spier, has been pivotal in overseeing the launch of the Future Skills programme and has been actively championing the vital roles skills play in driving a thriving economy at government level. He will be highlighting the benefits of the University’s approach to Future Skills education and the importance of collaboration between educators, business leaders and policymakers to advance the skills agenda at today’s Labour Party Conference business day.

“It is no longer simply enough for universities to offer narrow, subject-based knowledge to students,” he said. “Instead, we need to equip our graduates with the skills to navigate a world that will be constantly disrupted. The students we are educating now will go on to navigate portfolio careers and do jobs that don’t yet exist, in sectors we can barely imagine and using tools unheard of in the current business environment.”

Benefits for both students and businesses

Global business and technology consultancy FDM Group will be one of the firms involved with preparing students for their assessment centre sessions as part of the Explore roll out. Ensuring graduates entered the workplace equipped with the skills businesses most needed, from the ability to think creatively to quickly adapting to new demands, was vital, Kristy Littlewood, regional recruitment and university partnerships manager (south) for FDM Group, said. “As an employer, it’s hugely valuable to be able to collaborate with Kingston University on its Future Skills programme. Engaging directly with students within the curriculum as part of Explore allows us to share professional insights and provide them with an understanding of the skills the technology industry most needs and the ways they can be applied in the workplace as soon as they start their careers,” she said. 

Student Amber Joseph, who took part in a pilot of the Explore phase during the second year of her biochemistry course, credited the programme with allowing her to reflect on the skills she most wanted to develop before completing her degree. “The experience really helped me focus on what I want an employer to see when I’m sitting in front of them as they consider me for a job. That extra self-awareness has pushed me to do things outside my comfort zone and develop additional skills, such as public speaking.”

Alongside the roll-out of Explore, the third stage of the programme, Apply, is being piloted across several courses at the University this year, ahead of full implementation throughout the third-year undergraduate curriculum next year.

• Find out more about Future Skills at Kingston University