Helping Students Understand Why Oral Competency is Important

1. Introduction

"High grades, extracurriculars, and internships are great, of course, but “it’s the ‘soft’ skills that are much harder to find,” says Denise Dudley, a longtime corporate trainer who frequently speaks on college campuses and coaches students on what she calls career readiness. In her book, Work It!: Get In, Get Noticed, Get Promoted (2017), Dudley writes, “If your ‘people skills’ outshine your competition’s, you’re in demand.” The National Association of Colleges and Employers Links to an external site. (NACE) poll backs up that view. Every year, when asked what they’re seeking in new grads, between 60-80% of hiring managers and HR pros rank oral communication skills among their top 10. This data reminds us that it is not enough to train our students to have original ideas, solve seemingly un-solvable problems, or write the next Tony award-winning screenplay, we must also train them to tell their stories in a way that convinces audiences to listen and choose our students’ ideas over the ideas of others.In this module, we’ll address the following questions:

What IS oral competency?
How do I communicate the importance of oral competency to my students?
What are some best practices other faculty are using to help their students understand the importance of oral competency?

What IS oral competency?

You can’t make someone more competent just by giving them something like knowledge --there is no magical competency pill. A competency is something that needs to be practiced so that it can be used effectively in a wide range of appropriate situations, and at all the right times.” --Joseph Barber (29 August 2016) Are you career competent? Inside Higher Ed Links to an external site.

When it comes to oral competency, Barber says, employers are looking for things like active listening and effective communication. Students need to be able to accurately receive and interpret verbal and non-verbal messages from direct reports, peers, colleagues, and supervisors. They also must demonstrate that they can clearly and effectively articulate thoughts and do so to varied audiences in writing and in presentation. Key skills include being able to:

Adapt speaking approaches to suit different audiences. Communicate effectively and professionally through diverse channels (social media, emails, verbal communication).
Express ideas in a coherent manner.
Write/edit letters, position papers, proposals, web content and complex technical reports clearly and effectively.

How do I communicate the importance of oral competency to my students?

One of the biggest ways to "sell" the importance of oral competency to students is to share with them what employers have to say about what skills they want to see in graduating students. Click on each of the three graphs below to learn more about what employers are saying.

Features created with Design Tools Links to an external site. by Cidi Labs

How do you “sell” oral communication as an important skill to your students?

What works in your classroom? We want to hear from you! Share your strategy or strategies on our Padlet Corkboard by clicking on the "+" sign in the pink circle in the bottom right hand corner of the corkboard! You can respond using pictures, posting a link to articles, uploading a video from your phone or computer, or simply writing text. You can also group posts together, and respond to others' posts.

Best Practices: Faculty Voices

Why is oral competency important? Watch the videos below to learn from UT faculty the best practices for communicating to students the importance of oral competency.

Dr. Keri Stephens (Associate Professor of Communication Studies)

Meet Communication Studies Professor Dr. Keri Stephens and learn how she inspires self-motivation within her students to become the best communicators they can be.

Dr. Holli Temple (Clinical Assistant Professor in the Health Outcomes & Pharmacy Practice Division)

Meet Dr. Holli Temple, a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Health Outcomes & Pharmacy Practice Division in the College of Pharmacy. Dr. Temple encourages her students to reflect on how they will need communication to translate a lot of technical information to their future patients.

Dr. Gwen Stovall (Assistant Professor of Practice, College of Natural Sciences)

“If science happens and nobody’s around, is it really science?” Assistant Professor of Practice in the College of Natural Sciences, Dr. Gwen Stovall repurposes a philosophical question to help her students think about the importance of being able to communicate their knowledge of the discipline to others.

Interested in a one-one consultation with an expert to review your communication assignment, rubric, or activities? Looking for a workshop on teaching oral competency? How about a Public Speaking 101 workshop for your students? Visit the Sanger Public Speaking Center webpage Links to an external site.or send a message to: slc.speaking@austin.utexas.edu. Our team looks forward to empowering you and your students!