EKU Graduate Profile

Advancing employability and workforce skills at EKU

What is the EKU Graduate Profile?  The profile represents the 10 essential employability skills associated with success in both the classroom and workplace today. These professional skills rank high by employers and are aligned with the goals set forth by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE). 

What is the purpose of the project?  This CPE-sponsored project aims to engage the broad community of faculty, staff, and students at EKU to:  

• Raise awareness of the 10 skills.
• Increase student’s competency in the 10 skills.
• Help students to recognize the long-term value of 10 skills in daily life.
• Help students identify examples of their work that demonstrate their mastery of the skills.
• Ensure all graduates receive a high quality, relevant, and equitable education. 

What does project success look like?  In summary, we seek to:

• Make the 10 skills more visible in curriculum, services, and extracurricular activities.
• Improve communication with and make more transparent the 10 skills with students.
• Help students recognize and demonstrate their competencies in the 10 skills for both an academic audience and potential employers.

10 Essential Employability Skills:

• Communicate effectively
• Think critically in order to solve problems and create new ideas and solutions
• Apply quantitative reasoning skills to analyze and solve numerical problems
• Interact effectively with people from diverse backgrounds
• Adapt to changing circumstances while leading and supporting others
• Perform professionally within their chosen field of study or occupation
• Engage in civic life to improve society
• Collaborate and work in teams
• Demonstrate evidence of applied and integrated learning
• Use information for decision making 

We plan to update this site with information on the 10 skills and resources for faculty and staff, so please stay tuned.

For questions and to join the movement, contact:
Team Chair: Dr. Nicola Mason, Chair, Teaching, Learning & Educational Leadership
Faculty Representative: Dr. Chad Foster, Associate Professor, Homeland Security
Staff Representative: Starr Wentzel, Director, First-Year Courses
Alternate: Dr. Rusty Carpenter, Assistant Provost