Date of Award
6-16-2025
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
College
College of Education
First Advisor
Andrea Kayne
Abstract
Being a college student is much more than getting a diploma. It is a time to explore, make new friends, socialize, build knowledge, and start the development process for life after college. While students are highly encouraged to finish their college degree with a high-grade point average (GPA), it is important to also stay focused on the total education of a person. A key aspect of college education therefore is the development of employability and transferable skills. The literature noted that there is high rate of unemployment or underemployment among freshly graduated students. One of the ways to address this problem in the literature is to develop transferable skills. This claim is supported by organizations that tend to hire students with high transferable skills. While the literature pointed out the importance of transferable skills development, little is still known about the relationship between students working on campus in a university lab and their ability to develop or increase their transferable skills. The purpose of this study therefore is to evaluate the perceived transferable skills developed and used while working at mLab (a university lab in the Midwest). mLab provides students the opportunity to work outside the classroom on real industry projects and with industry partners. This research collected data of the students’ employees at mLab, to measure development and/or increase in their transferable skills. It also measures the kind of transferable and empowering skills students can develop. This study adopts a mixed research method (quantitative and qualitative) within a single case study environment. 48 respondents participated in the data collection and 8 categories of transferable skills were examined. Overall, this research demonstrates that students’ transferable skills can be developed through experiential learning. Future research on transferable skills should look at other university jobs and labs
Recommended Citation
Adelakun, Mopelola F., "Developing Transferable Skills Not Just GPA: The Case of a University Lab" (2025). Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University. 1.
https://via.library.depaul.edu/theses-dissertations/1