Embedding Generic Skills Means Assessing Generic Skills

This paper is based on an ALTC project investigating the embedding of generic skills into a Business curriculum. The project focuses on four generic skills, namely, critical thinking skills, teamwork skills, ethical practice and sustainability. As part of the project, the team ran a workshop with students where various activities and potential assessment tasks were practised. The students’ comments were used to refine the activities and assessments. The paper focuses on the assessment of the four skills. As students progress from first through to third year, they need to develop their skills in critical thinking and teamwork. They also need to develop their ability to make ethical decisions and understand sustainable practices. It is important for the skills to be embedded into assessment tasks in order to measure students’ attainments of the skills. Specific examples of embedding the skills into assessments across the three years of the degree will be given, including an example used in the workshop showing how to integrate critical thinking and teamwork skills into a capstone assignment that helps students to develop their ethical and sustainability practice.