Teaching career skills to undergraduates
Using context- and problem-based learning to increase commercial awareness for chemistry undergraduates
The problem of students needing industrial experience to enhance their employability can be tough to solve. The number of summer placements and year in industry placements is limited, and with the majority of institutions promoting the benefits of commercial experience to their students, demand far outweighs supply.
The task falls to educators to develop ways of providing commercial insight for students within the taught curriculum. Over a number of years, context- and problem-based learning (CPBL) have been developed to help students gain experience of solving real-world problems,1 problems that don’t have a pre-defined correct answer and where the best outcomes come from justifying decisions.
In 2014, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) identified areas related to chemistry that would benefit from a problem-based learning approach. There was a call for proposals to develop new resources that would form open educational resources on Learn Chemistry.2
The University of Leeds led the creation of three resources – chemistry careers in small to medium enterprises (SMEs), turning waste into wealth, and recycling the undesired enantiomer of naproxen.
Samantha Pugh evaluates these teaching resources, discussing their creation, implementation and effect.
The article provides links to the resources discussed.
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