Development, Implementation and Evaluation of a Professional Skills Development Program: The Case of Concordia University’s GradProSkills

Vivek Venkatesh
, Jihan Rabah
, Laurie Lamoureux-Scholes
, Ildiko Pelczer
, Kathryn Urbaniak
, Frédérica Martin

Abstract

The Graduate and Professional Skills (GradProSkills) program is an initiative developed and run by Concordia University’s School of Graduate Studies and the university’s Office of the Vice-President, Research and Graduate Studies. This paper presents a case study in which we describe the development, implementation, and evaluative components of the GradProSkills program. Drawing on data from a rigorously validated workshop evaluation tool and from attendance figures spanning a period of a little over two and a half years, we provide a picture of how Concordia’s graduate students are benefiting from the GradProSkills program. We present the results of both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses run on a pilot group of registrants who provided evaluation data (n = 3,292). Our case study contributes an empirically derived model of extracurricular programming, with contextualizing details of administrative structures, curriculum-development initiatives, and partnership efforts that have been used in operating the GradProSkills program. 

 

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Published

2014-12-31



Section

Articles



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How to Cite

Venkatesh, V., Rabah, J., Lamoureux-Scholes, L., Pelczer, I., Urbaniak, K., & Martin, F. (2014). Development, Implementation and Evaluation of a Professional Skills Development Program: The Case of Concordia University’s GradProSkills. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 44(3), 39–53. https://doi.org/10.47678/cjhe.v44i3.186037