UW–Madison’s Matthew T. Hora, a professor of adult and higher education in the Division of Continuing Studies and with the School of Education’s Department of Educational Policy Studies, recently spoke with the Chronicle of Higher Education about skills and what they mean in the current conversation about higher education.
In the interview, Hora discussed limitations in how “skills” are defined and measured in higher education and workforce policy. He noted that generic skills terms — such as “critical thinking” — are often disconnected from professional practice. He pointed to the complexity of teaching and assessing transferable skills in context, based on research from fields such as medical education, sociology of work, and communication studies.
Hora, who is also the director of UW–Madison’s Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions, further discussed the historical and policy roots of today’s skills discourse, referencing a 1972 report from the U.S. Army’s CONARC project that originally proposed the “hard” vs. “soft” skills distinction. He noted that even this early research found the binary to be problematic and recommended abandoning it in favor of hands-on, context-specific learning models.
The article references Hora’s 2016 book, “Beyond the Skills Gap: Preparing College Students for Life and Work,” which looks at how institutions can help students develop coveted 21st-century skills.
The full interview is available on The Chronicle of Higher Education website.