Graduate attributes, soft, transferable or transversal skills? Discussing the dynamic intersection of skills development in Higher Education

There are multiple terms to describe the set of skills that are relevant across different contexts, including transferable skills, graduate attributes, transversal skills and soft skills. These terms, while overlapping in definition, are not exactly synonymous. Typically, higher education is viewed as one context where these skills are developed and it is the challenges surrounding the integration and understanding of these skills that is the focus of this chapter. Taking the form of a discussion between three academics, the chapter explores the nature of skills development across diverse academic disciplines. The key themes covered include the impact of disciplinary culture and epistemology on the teaching and development of soft skills, the stubborn gap between employer expectations and the skills graduates bring to the workplace, and the need for a nuanced approach to assessment that values creativity. The ideas that assessments of skills development should involve an element of creativity and that cross disciplinary skills assessments are unlikely to be successful or fair emerge as important takeaways. Finally the creation of a database of how these skills manifest in different disciplinary contexts is suggested as a first step in moving towards a better understanding of how skills development and assessment can be addressed in higher education contexts.