Sue Beckingham

Baseline skills—scaffolding soft skills development within the curriculum

To enable Computer Science students to develop employability and ‘work-ready’ skills it is important to consider both the technical skills aligned to their discipline and the soft skills desired by employers. Research has identified that students in Computer Science would benefit from further support to develop the latter. This chapter considers how these skills can be developed through a variety of work experience opportunities including work-based learning and work-related learning; in class activities and alternative teaching approaches such as project, inquiry and problem-based learning; and through scaffolding both soft skills development and reflective practice, how students can become more confident in articulating these skills when applying for graduate work.