Graduate Attributes are a set of personal attributes, skills, capacities and values relevant to the world of employment, that make graduates valuable and worthy employees. These attributes are especially crucial as today’s graduates need more than just knowledge alone to thrive and succeed in the current century. Knowledge is forever and every day, we are exposed to learning opportunities. With this never-ending journey of learning, it is only wise to equip ourselves with the skills and experience to lead on life and pave a way to success and also, to find the techniques, resources and skills to find the means and ways to obtain the knowledge to apply them in our lives where it is deemed as necessary for our advancement and adaption. Thus, Edith Cowan University (ECU) has identified five Graduate Attributes and expects these to be developed and assessed in all undergraduate courses.
Communication is an essential skill wherever you go and it starts from birth. When an infant is hungry, even though it is unable to speak, it cries to acknowledge its hunger. Similarly, when a person grows, they learn how to fuse their communication skills together with maturity and a social sense of respect to the feelings of others. Communication skills are also crucial to express one’s self, regardless of race, religion or gender. Communication is not only spoken but it is written as well. As such, an ECU graduate should be able to communicate efficiently as well as show this skill in assignment writings, research papers and presentations. This skill is a mandatory requirement in all the units. For example, in the ‘Psychology, Community and Work’ unit, ECU students are required to conduct an interview with a person from the psychological field that they are interested in, as well as create a resume and preparation notes with anticipatory questions from the interviewer. These enable room for confidence and outspokenness in a candidate. I have also done ‘Oral Communication Skills’ as well as ‘Techniques of Writing’ units when I was doing my Diploma. Thus, I actually have a basic introduction to this skill on an academic level.
2) Ability to work in teams
I believe that communication is the fundamental skill for team work. To add on to what was said previously in regards to having the ability to communicate, communication with a team would not only mean that you do all the talking and writing. It is about sharing the work load equally, being able to relate to the team mates both emotionally as well as socially, lending a listening ear to your team mates and encouraging and aiming to achieve the team’s goal together. Team work is very important for an organisation to function, regardless it being school or at a workforce. Opinions may vary but respecting each others’ opinions is yet another key element of teamwork; listening, that is. In ECU, team work is enforced as we are made to engage in group and class discussions as well as simple presentations. One very crucial unit in this course pertaining to team work-related studies, though I have yet to take it, would be the ‘Group Processes and Group Management’ unit enables ECU students to understand the theory and the experience necessary to develop an understanding of group processes and develop effective group skills. A further emphasis is the effective management of groups to maximise productivity and satisfaction; and maintain the qualities of an effective group. ‘Psychology and Group Dynamics’, ‘Applied Business Psychology’, ‘Applied Marketing Psychology’ and ‘Employment Assessment and Leadership Development’ are units whereby I was exposed to the various kinds of team work situations as well as the different kind of people faced during a team work and also, how to react as well as implement a positive working environment within and between team mates.
3) Critical appraisal skills
This is the process by which someone can evaluate a piece of written material and assess whether it possesses validity (i.e. is it close to the truth) and applicability (i.e. is it useful). For example, if a research is being examined, the results are questioned if they can be implemented in everyday life or a direction for future research. The significance is then scrutinised with the help of critical appraisal skills to see if it meets the requirements of the researcher. All the research papers and lab reports that I have done thus far urges me to put my critical appraisal skills into optimum use to produce a good paper. Three units that I would name, which made me use this skill to an extremely large extent, I feel, would be ‘Research Methods 1’, ‘Research Methods 2’ and ‘Research Applications and Ethical Issues’. These three units imposes a great deal of statistics as we were required to produce lab reports and to work with the SPSS software to tabulate the results and determine the significance of the tests conducted. Other units required me to think in-depth, in regards to producing the necessary paper. This has also helped me in my daily life as I am able to make decisions more easily than before. I feel that my critical appraisal skills have improved with the various units that I am learning, as well as through the assignments that I am required to do.
4) Ability to generate ideas
I strongly believe that the ability to generate ideas is inborn in every human. The only difference is that, each and every one of us is unique in the way we think and the formation of our ideas. I believe I do possess the ability to generate ideas as if there is no idea, I would not have been able to do my assignment papers as each and every assignment requires a great deal of creative thinking as well as ideas to implement on the research. Also, I have done many presentations that have required me to use this skill. To add on, taking up dance at a dance school also puts this skill of mine to use as I have choreographed a Salsa dance item for my friend’s 21st birthday bash. An added advantage would also be that, I have been an art student back in secondary school and I have done a coursework for my major examination (O’Level). This enabled me to improve my art and craft skills which in turn, boost my idea generation and to date, I have done DIY wedding/birthday guest books, DIY cards as well as assisted and/or done birthday décor for acquaintances. Also, in the 'Psychology, Community and Work' unit, this ePortfolio is required and doing this enables me to bring out the creative side of mine as well.
5) Cross-cultural and international outlook
Being an off-shore student of ECU, as much as there are more people locally, I am still given exposure to a variety of people who are from different cultures, countries, different religion, beliefs, walk of life, and so to speak. I am positive enough to say that the experience gained here, is no less crippled than the on-shore students. This is because there are students from overseas, which enables an introduction to an international outlook. We are also given an opportunity to work together in pairs or groups. Besides this, religion is also not a barrier as we have a mixed variety of people from different cultures. What more, even the lecturers fly in directly from ECU itself to come down conduct lectures. The lecturers assist through Blackboard/emails when we have a query. This ensures that we get similar information and imposed knowledge as the on-shore students and that our learning journey is not sabotaged in anyway. I believe that ‘Cultural Issues in Psychology’ unit would enable me to understand the cultural issues and differences in psychology at a more in-depth level. In conclusion,. I would definitely say that learning with ECU has enabled my skills to be sharpened further and to be more conscious and driven towards my career goal of becoming a clinical psychologist in future, with the skills I have instilled in me and have improved on over time. I also understand that as much as each skill is unique on its own, it works interrelated. For example, team work, requires communication. Likewise, cross-cultural and international outlook would require team work and communication so that cultural sensitivity is kept up to, and so on to speak. These skills are tools that are essential for life and when delivered properly, brings you a step closer to success, like what I believe.