fuTUre skills

For all students of the TU Darmstadt

When friends, family or future employers ask: ‘What did you learn during your studies and what are your strengths?’, people often think first of the technical knowledge. But your degree programme is so much more!

Visualise and strengthen skills development

During your studies, you will develop a wide range of specialist and interdisciplinary skills: how to acquire knowledge independently, structure and present it, how to work with others in a goal-oriented manner, coordinate a team independently and organise your own learning and work processes.

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In the fuTUre skills module, we accompany and support you in becoming aware of this development of your professional and interdisciplinary skills, reflecting on them in a targeted manner and documenting them in your own development portfolio.

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And when you are asked later in the interview where your strengths lie, your answer may no longer be a short ‘teamwork skills’, but a confident ‘I have experience in independent teamwork and am therefore aware of the individual strengths of my employees in order to use them specifically to solve the task at hand’.

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fuTUre skills starts before the start of the lecture period (mid-September for the winter semester, mid-March for the summer semester) with a joint workshop for all participating students, in which we take the first steps towards becoming aware of and reflecting on your own skills. In this workshop, you will also take the first steps towards your own development portfolio.

Over the course of the semester, you will then fill your portfolio by dealing with weekly questions about, for example, your time management, your goals, the learning strategy that suits you, the skills you have acquired and the subject content of a module you have chosen. The design of your portfolio is entirely up to you: It is a project for you in which you become aware of yourself, your studies and your skills and make your strengths visible.

During the semester, you will meet regularly in a small group with your fellow students, accompanied by a teacher or experienced student co-trainer. There you will exchange ideas and support each other. At these meetings, you will also receive new input from us for your self-reflection. Together, you will discuss your experiences, your new insights and your portfolio.

At the end of the semester, we will meet for a joint semester wrap-up and you will write a final reflection. You will then have the basis of your own development portfolio, which you can continue to build on throughout your entire degree programme (and even your later professional life).

And you may have made new friends and gained interesting insights!

  • Module size: 5 CP
  • Can be credited in the interdisciplinary area
  • During the semester, with a weekend workshop before the start of the lecture period and regular group meetings during the semester
  • Assessment as ungraded coursework: participation in the workshop and the group meetings, creation of the skills portfolio during the semester

fuTUre skills is a LeNA project to strengthen your personal development, which is developed and implemented together with students. If you wish, it can accompany you throughout your entire degree programme – and your own development portfolio throughout your life.