Our learners are primarily in the 18+ age group, specifically between 20 to 23 years old, enrolled across various healthcare programs. To ensure structured skill development, we allocated a dedicated lecture every Monday in the academic timetable for Skill Builder activities across all programs. This consistent scheduling helped establish a clear routine, and students are now well aware that Mondays are reserved for essential skill-building. This regularity reinforced the importance of developing core skills alongside academic knowledge and allowed both faculty and students to plan meaningfully around the 8 essential skills framework. To extend the impact beyond the classroom, we sent letters to parents, informing them about the Skills Builder programme, its importance, and how their children will be participating. This helped create a shared understanding between students, faculty, and families, reinforcing the relevance of skill development in both academic and personal growth. We began in October and have been continuing to do so since then.

We utilized the Skills Builder Hub resources to measure students' progress in essential skills. A pre-assessment was conducted before the Monday sessions began, and we also recorded post-session scores to track growth and engagement after each activity. This helped both faculty and students reflect on individual progress and skill development more objectively. However, based on this year’s experience, we recognize the need to plan and structure this assessment process more effectively in the upcoming academic year—for example, by refining our tracking methods, integrating more student feedback, and aligning scores with observable behaviours during academic and clinical tasks. This reflective approach ensures our commitment to continuous improvement in embedding essential skills meaningfully. While we have taken several meaningful steps in embedding essential skills through creative activities, structured sessions, and the use of Hub resources, I personally feel there is scope for further improvement—particularly in terms of effective use and reporting on the Skills Builder Hub. Our faculty have worked with great commitment in delivering sessions and engaging students, but we recognise that more consistent tracking, uploading of evidence, and reflection on the Hub platform are needed to close the feedback loop. In the upcoming academic year, we plan to focus in detail on improving our usage of the Hub, ensuring that it is fully utilised not just as a planning and assessment tool, but also as a platform for sharing progress and celebrating student achievements. This reflection-driven approach will help us strengthen the impact and sustainability of our skill-building programme across the institution.

We made use of the Skills Builder Hub resources to assess skill development and actively involved our learners in the process. Each student was given a self-assessment sheet to evaluate their skills before the Skill Builder sessions began. This encouraged reflection and helped students take ownership of their learning. The completed assessments were submitted to us, and we compiled and analysed the data to understand the overall skill levels of the group. After each Monday session, post-session scores were also recorded to measure progress and engagement. To ensure more focused and personalised learning, we grouped students based on score in specific essential skills, with approximately 20 students in each group. This allowed us to tailor activities and discussions according to the skill area being developed—such as communication, problem solving, teamwork, or leadership. By conducting skill-specific training sessions in smaller groups, we were able to give more attention to each student, encourage active participation, and foster peer-to-peer learning. This approach also allowed facilitators to observe and guide students more effectively, making the skill-building process more impactful and interactive. We recognise that there is still scope to better differentiate skill-building based on individual student needs, learning styles, and academic levels. In the coming year, we aim to provide more targeted feedback to individuals rather than general group feedback & Train faculty on inclusive strategies to support students who may be shy, less confident, or from diverse educational backgrounds.

We actively embedded essential skills into subject-specific learning by designing lessons that encouraged real-world application, collaboration, and creativity. For this We chose 2 lessons from our syllabus where we could incorporate a number of Skills In the subject Physical Therapy Ethics, we developed a lesson plan on “Rules of Professional Conduct in Physical Therapy”. During this session, students were divided into groups and given different ethical dilemma case studies. Each group discussed potential solutions and presented their conclusions through a representative. This activity fostered communication, problem-solving, and teamwork, while allowing students to reflect on professional values in a collaborative setting. In the subject Physical evaluation we developed a Lesson Plan with skills integration for the topic “ Joint Evaluation”. Students were grouped and each team was assigned a specific joint of the body. They were tasked with creating videos/reels demonstrating physiotherapy assessment tests related to their assigned joint. What made this unique was that 3rd-year students were mentored by 4th-year students, who guided them through the process. This project developed essential skills like creativity, teamwork, and leadership, while encouraging peer learning and hands-on engagement with clinical knowledge As we reflect on our first year of implementation, we recognise several areas with great potential for growth with Wider Faculty Involvement: While a core group of teachers has actively engaged with the Skills Builder framework, we aim to train and involve more faculty members across all departments. This will help create consistency and build a shared culture of skill development throughout the institution. Also, integration Across More Subjects: So far, skill-building has been embedded into selected subjects and activities. Going forward, we plan to expand integration across a broader range of academic subjects, making essential skills a natural part of everyday learning. Towards Whole-Curriculum Embedding: Our long-term goal is to gradually shift towards embedding essential skills in all lessons, regardless of the subject. This will ensure that skill development is continuous, contextual, and relevant for every learner, in every classroom.

We embedded Bring it to Life by creating authentic opportunities for students to apply their academic learning to real-world contexts, both locally and globally. A key example was our department-led celebration of International Day of Disability. Organized by the Physical Therapy Department, this initiative involved student-led awareness activities, patient education, and inclusive communication sessions. By directly interacting with patients, students were able to apply their therapeutic knowledge, demonstrate empathy, and build interpersonal and advocacy skills in a meaningful setting. We also participated in the Climate Action Project, a global initiative that empowered our students to research environmental health issues, collaborate with international peers, and propose sustainable solutions. This cross-disciplinary project helped students apply the same skill sets—critical thinking, collaboration, problem-solving, and effective communication—in a global context, showing them how their learning is relevant beyond the classroom and across borders. Importantly, our students continue to bring these skills to life every day during their clinical postings as interns in the hospital. Through continuous interaction with real patients, they strengthen their communication, decision-making, and ethical practice—making learning a truly lived experience. Showcasing student work and reflections regularly on digital platforms like our website and social media, to celebrate growth and inspire peer learning.