Professional Skills

Course goals

Learning objectives
 
This course enables you to:

1. Evaluate your personal strengths and weaknesses
2. Be more aware of choices and possibilities in your immediate professional future
3. Determine which specific steps to take towards your desired professional future
4. Understand and apply a new set of professional skills (in areas of your interest)

Content

Your master provides you with the knowledge and analytical skills to succeed in a professional career. In addition, employers prefer candidates who demonstrate a broad set of professional skills; candidates who are effective in written and verbal understanding and presentation, who are sensitive to intercultural differences, who know how to handle difficult conversations, who are able to work as a team-player, stimulate teamwork, and so forth. These skills become even more relevant in a rapidly changing job market shaped by AI and technological developments. Furthermore, in a labor market that is still favorable for job seekers, the question ‘what do you really want’ becomes more relevant than ever; more options also create more stress to choose what fits best. In line with the Real World Perspective (the USE mission), this course provides you with tools to create more insight into what you are good at and what steps to take towards your desired professional future, as well as to practice required skills. This will not only help you to take more effective steps towards the niche you aspire in the job market, but it will also give you that edge over other candidates when applying.
 
Course contents
The course includes two modules. The first module runs the entire academic year: you are challenged to reflect on yourself as an individual and develop a plan to act. This part includes a self-analysis of strengths and weaknesses, formulating professional goals, creating a personal positioning statement, exploring fitting workplaces, and updating your profile accordingly. Evidence for your progress will be embodied in an individual ’Future Career Dossier’. While we will offer you many tools to choose from, to help you work through this process effectively, a large part of the outcome will be determined by the degree in which you make a conscious choice to invest in yourself. Will you make time at regular intervals throughout the year to fortify your self-awareness and professional positioning?
 
The second module consists of a series of professional development workshops. These cover a wide range of skills and capabilities, from influencing and negotiation techniques to Finance in Excel, habit management, TED-level presenting, (remote) teambuilding, among others. Each year, several workshops are provided by company partners, giving you the opportunity to explore their particular work contexts as well. The workshops will help you develop yourself in areas that you are interested in and become an even more interesting candidate to potential employers. You will take four workshops and write an insightful reflection on each to pass this second module.

Literature
No specific literature is required for this course.
 
Format
All on-campus activities related to this course are organized on pre-determined dates throughout the year. For the year 2026-2027, these dates are: 16 October 2026, 4 December 2026, and 5 March 2027 (all Fridays). Anticipate full-day sessions and KEEP THESE DATES COMPLETELY FREE IN YOUR AGENDA.
Workshops will be given by professional trainers. More details will be shared in the course manual that will be posted on Brightspace in advance of the course.

Assessment
In order to pass this course, the students should:

1. Develop and hand in the Future Career Dossier – ‘pass’ or ‘fail’
2. Write a reflection on four professional development workshops, including insights gained and own experiences with applying the skill at hand – ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ for each

In case online access is required for this course and you are not in the position to buy the access code, you are advised to contact the course coordinator for an alternative solution. Please note that access codes are not reusable meaning that codes from second hand books do not work, as well as access codes from books with a different ISBN. Separate or spare codes are usually not available.