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Towards a 21st Century Personalised Learning Skills Taxonomy

Rupert Ward, Oliver Phillips, David Bowers, Tom Crick Orcid Logo, James H. Davenport, Paul Hanna, Alan Hayes, Alastair Irons, Tom Prickett

2021 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)

Swansea University Author: Tom Crick Orcid Logo

Abstract

There exists a significant gap between the requirements specified within higher education qualifications and the requirements sought by employers. The former, commonly expressed in terms of learning outcomes, provide a measure of capability, of what skills have been learnt (an input measure); the la...

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Published in: 2021 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)
ISBN: 978-1-7281-8479-1 978-1-7281-8478-4
ISSN: 2165-9559 2165-9567
Published: IEEE 2021
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56272
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Abstract: There exists a significant gap between the requirements specified within higher education qualifications and the requirements sought by employers. The former, commonly expressed in terms of learning outcomes, provide a measure of capability, of what skills have been learnt (an input measure); the latter, commonly expressed in terms of role descriptions, provide a measure of competency, of what a learner has become skillful in (an output measure). Accreditation traditionally provides a way of translating and embedding industry-relevant content into education programmes but current approaches make fully addressing this requirements gap, referred to here as the Capability-Competency Chasm, very difficult. This paper explores current efforts to address this global challenge, primarily through STEM examples that apply within the United Kingdom and European Union, before proposing a way of bridging this chasm through the use of a 21st Century (C21) skills taxonomy. The concept of C21 Skills Hours as a new input measurement for learning within qualifications is introduced, and an illustrative example is presented to show the C21 skills taxonomy in action. The paper concludes with a discussion of how such a taxonomy can also be used to support a microcredentialing framework that aligns to existing competency frameworks, enabling formal, non-formal and informal learning to all be recognized. A C21 Skills taxonomy can therefore be used to bridge the gap between capability (input) and competency (output), providing a common language both for learning and demonstrating a skill. This approach has profound implications for addressing current and future skills gaps as well as for supporting a transition to more personalised learning within schools, colleges and universities and more lifelong learning both during and outside of employment.
Keywords: Personalised Learning, Skills Taxonomy, Micro-credential, Framework, Accreditation
College: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences