The RSC's Undergraduate Skills Record is now available online

'Employability skills' is a phrase that is becoming more and more commonly used in higher education. How can we ensure that chemistry students graduate with the necessary range of skills to adequately prepare them for a career? How can we guarantee that undergraduates recognise and record these skills?

The RSC's Undergraduate Skills Record (USR) provides a framework for students to document the skills they use throughout their undergraduate study and organise targets and goals for future development.

This framework is now available online. It allows students to review and assess the transferable skills they have gained during their undergraduate career, analyse and identify personal areas that need development, receive feedback and set targets and goals for the future and build a skills profile with key examples of each skill.

This professional development record can be continued after graduation through the RSC Continuing Professional Development (CPD) framework.

David Alker, academic liaison and recruitment manager, Pfizer, said: 'Students who have developed [transferrable] skills as part of their undergraduate programme are likely to represent attractive potential recruits and can look forward to a stimulating, rewarding R&D career.

'I strongly recommend every undergraduate in the chemical sciences, irrespective of their proposed career path, to complete the USR honestly and diligently, providing a framework to identify skills gaps and address these effectively.'

To learn more, go online and create a USR account today.

Also of interest

Undergraduate skills record

A framework for skills recording and development to be used throughout your undergraduate study