How best to embed academic, personal, and professional development (APPD) into first year psychology?

Background: Ongoing development of academic, personal, and professional skills is central to a smooth transition to university. Yet uptake of centrally provided, opt-in skills training is poor; researchers recommend skills training is embedded in the curriculum. This is an inclusive approach in the context of widening participation. But it can be challenging to make APPD feel ‘relevant’ for students, and to overcome scepticism and non-engagement. This workshop offers a forum to exchange ideas and share practice related to APPD. It is relevant to university teachers supporting the initial years of the degree and may also interest pretertiary educators who support the transition to university.

Key points: The workshop leader will present case studies from her own experience, and from the literature on transition and APPD. Participants will break into groups for discussion of specific issues, for example: What can be done ‘pre-arrival’? Is skills instruction better contained within one module, or spread across many? Should skills instruction be delivered by the personal tutor? Classroom or computer lab? How soon is ‘too soon’ for careers? Groups will feed back in a plenary session and participants will also contribute individually and anonymously via online response tools.

Conclusions: The workshop will encourage participants to share successes and challenges from their own practice in supporting APPD. Participants will gain insight into the methods used across the sector to support students in developing skills that aid their transition to university and set them up for success on their programme and in their career.