Senior NUS students have strong competencies in soft skills such as adaptability, entrepreneurial thinking and pursuing convictions, which are attributes valued by employers
(7 February 2017) Students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) can now find out how well they fare in skillsets that employers value in new hires through a novel index that is specially designed to assess the future-readiness of an individual. Professor Tan Eng Chye, NUS Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost, introduced the CFG Future-ready Index (CFG-FRI) at the opening ceremony of the NUS Career Fair 2017.
Developed by the NUS Centre for Future-ready Graduates (CFG), the FRI comprises nine domains of soft skills which employers value in talents – Adaptability, Curiosity, Emotional Sensing, Empathy, Entrepreneurial Thinking, Insight, Pursuing Convictions, Resilience and Vision. These key mindsets and competencies were identified by NUS CFG through a series of focus group sessions and surveys that were conducted between February to November 2016 involving more than 300 multinational and local employers.
NUS CFG also developed a self-assessment tool based on the CFG-FRI. Between June to October 2016, a total of 4,250 NUS undergraduates tested out the tool and NUS CFG examined the future-readiness profiles of NUS students based on the nine domains. In addition to assessing students’ future-readiness, NUS CFG also conducted a survey with the undergraduates to identify the most important factors for millennials in choosing a career and staying with an employer.
The pilot findings of CFG-FRI as well as factors influencing the career choices of millennials are presented in the inaugural NUS Future-ready Report (NUS-FRR), which was also launched today at the NUS Career Fair 2017. The report can be downloaded at www.nus.edu.sg/cfg/frr2017.
Prof Tan Eng Chye, NUS Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost, said, “The CFG-FRI enables us to define the competencies that are valued by the industry today, and track the progress of our students in these key attributes. Most importantly, it helps us to identify areas in the NUS educational experience that we can further enhance to better prepare our students for the highly competitive global employment market. While the Index is developed for NUS students, it can also be a useful tool for organisations to assess and enhance the soft-skills competencies of their employees.”
Ms Crystal Lim, Director of NUS CFG, added, “Awareness of these preferred soft skills will enable students to bring more value to recruitment interviews and to the employer, as well as to thrive in their future careers. The CFG Future-ready Index Tool, which is a psychometric assessment tool, will soon be available to employers on CFG’s website and we invite everyone to try it out.”
To read the full announcement including key findings from the CFG-FRI click here.
