Prabha Parthasarathy, Andrea Giraldez-Hayes, Sophia Semerdjieva, Ardiana Meha

In the Post-Pandemic World, employers are laying greater emphasis on recruiting graduates who are well equipped with soft skills such as flexibility, adaptability and the ability to collaborate effectively. UEL’s mental wealth modules prepare students for this need. However, this changing need makes it imperative to rethink and optimise these modules further.

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In this presentation, we will be discussing one such initiative that centred around group coaching and took advantage of expertise across schools. The context here is a Level 5 Research and Career Development module that undergraduate students from the School of Health, Sport and Biosciences pursue. Developing soft skills such as teamworking skills is promoted through a 4 week-long group task where 3-4 students work collaboratively to design a poster on a research paper. To foster more effective teamwork and promote holistic soft skills development, fourteen students from the MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology at the School of Psychology led group coaching sessions for student teams. Group Coaching is a facilitative process that supports the experience and performance of a group of participants who may or not usually work together.

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Our presentation will discuss this pilot project and include the approach and reflections on the strengths, challenges and future development. We believe this project provides new perspectives on curriculum development in the post-pandemic world. This would interest faculty who are considering professional attribute development in their modules