[New] Kingston University’s work to embed future skills across all courses draws praise from Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey during campus visit

A group of senior Liberal Democrat MPs visited Kingston University to find out how it is helping students develop future skills for career success through a progressive new model of education.

The University has been highlighting the importance of skills for innovation to the national economy as part of its Future Skills campaign, which has found problem solving, digital competency and the ability to analyse and think creatively were among the graduate attributes businesses most valued.

Kingston and Surbiton MP Sir Ed Davey met with staff and students at the University’s flagship Town House building to discuss the campaign’s latest research and see first-hand how it was now embedding future-proofed skills across its courses.

mock exams and running assessment panels for third year engineering students. We’ve also employed several local students to come and work with us.

During the autumn period we implemented a programme of New Engineering Contract (NEC) training across all our Summers-Inman offices with a hugely successful pass rate. Our staff can now use their technical and practical skills to excel as project leaders and provide our clients with professional advice and support.

Looking forward to 2023 we hope to continue strengthening our connections to Kingston University as well as with other local businesses and networks. We are also excited to be submitting entries for the Kingston Borough Business Awards (KBBA). We’re going in for the Best Professional Service and Customer Service categories. We very much enjoyed attending the award ceremony earlier this year and meeting with other local businesses in the area.

He was joined by the party’s business spokesperson, Richmond Park MP Sarah Olney, and education spokesperson and Twickenham MP Munira Wilson.

Instilling future skills teaching across the curriculum through the newly launched Navigate programme is a central part of the University’s Town House Strategy. The programme is being piloted this year, before being rolled out more widely across the institution. From September 2023, all undergraduate courses will incorporate self-diagnostic and future skills development sessions within first year modules.

After speaking to students taking part in the pilot and staff involved in its delivery, Sir Ed praised the work being done to ensure students across the University were prepared to meet the changing needs of industry. “It was fantastic to hear about the amazing Future Skills research Kingston University has been doing,” he said. “The University is now applying those lessons for the student experience to help people navigate through higher education, work in a multi-disciplinary way and take those life skills into the world beyond the University.”

Bringing parliamentarians to campus to show them how the institution was putting the findings of its Future Skills research into practice had been an important opportunity to demonstrate the value this new model of education could have for the economy, University Vice-Chancellor Professor Steven Spier said.

“Our Future Skills reports have clearly shown what businesses say they need to meet the challenges of the future. We have taken the results of that and are weaving that into how and what we teach our students so they are fully prepared for the future world of work,” he said. “Introducing this work to three of our local MPs and giving them the chance to speak directly to our students demonstrated how we are delivering the Future Skills agenda both for our students and for industry.”