Embedding technical, personal and professional competencies in computing degree programmes

Many factors influence computing graduate employment prospects, including human capital, social capital, individual attributes, individual career-building behaviours, perceived employability, and labour market factors. Whilst most computing graduates go on to be beneficially employed, a small minority remain under-employed or unemployed. Computing curricular recommendations increasingly advocate a competency-based approach to bolster graduates' perceived employability. Hence, the discipline is evolving to incorporate competency-based approaches. However, competency-based can mean any of three different types of competency: technical, personal and professional. Technical Competency is the ability to apply acquired content knowledge and skills to develop solutions to unseen problems. Personal Competency is the personal behaviours and interpersonal skills required for success in the modern workplace. Professional Competency is Technical and Personal combined and applied in a real-world context.

This position paper provides illustrative examples of how to embed all three kinds of Competency. Based on examples from representative undergraduate computing programmes at UK universities, it provides examples of embedding each kind of competency: Technical Competency (teaching programming through craft computing and approaches for developing cybersecurity competency), Personal Competency (teaching teamwork through project-based learning and creativity via problem-based learning), and Professional Competency (developing work-ready competency using industrial placements, and co-design/co-delivery with industry via degree apprenticeships), providing a valuable foundation and framing for portability and extension in other institutions and jurisdictions. Furthermore, these distinctive types of competency form a helpful taxonomy when considering how to embed competency in computing courses and are candidates for inclusion within future computing curricula guidelines.