Going to university is about more than just getting a degree — it’s about gaining invaluable life skills that will serve you far beyond your academic journey. We call them uOCompetencies, and they’re a big part of your uOttawa education.
“Regardless of whether you end up in a career related to your degree, the personal and professional development skills you’ll gain from your experience at uOttawa will set you up for life,” says Aline Germain-Rutherford, vice-provost, academic affairs.
The University of Ottawa makes sure these skills are built into your coursework and our faculties’ overall curriculum goals. Beyond the classroom, we offer internships, job skills development programs and work-based learning opportunities to ensure that the transferable skills you need become part of your education.
Here’s more about the uOCompetencies you can gain from your uOttawa experience:
- Critical thinking gives you the ability to conduct systematic analyses of issues, ideas and events before drawing conclusions or forming opinions.
- Problem solving and creativity will help you generate or design high-quality, original and elegant solutions or products to address complex issues.
- Communication allows you to present arguments and ideas that are adapted to different audiences in oral, written and/or visual form.
- Integrity means cultivating the values of honesty, trust, fairness and respect that lead to ethical decision-making and truthful behaviour.
- Autonomy and resilience allow you to make effective decisions and adopt flexible work practices. They help you respond well to challenges and persevere in the face of adversity.
- Intellectual curiosity and lifelong learning will drive you to engage with the world through an open-minded pursuit of knowledge and insight.
- Collaboration is key to working with others to achieve common objectives.
- Self-awareness is the demonstration of keen self-perception that draws upon life experiences as a resource for personal development.
- Civic engagement empowers you to get involved in community life and become aware of social issues both locally and globally.
- Worldview gives you the capacity to engage with other cultures through flexible thinking, valuing group actions (or goals) and developing language skills, including bilingualism.
- Digital capacity allows you to adopt and develop new practices involving digital technology, to better analyze and acquire a critical perspective on content and underlying systems, services and networks.
Contact the Career Corner to lean more about uOCompetencies.