The Cambridge Skills Educators' Network aims to link up the many people across the collegiate University who are doing work related to academic skills development.
This network encompasses people in a wide variety of roles, including Assistant Senior Tutors, Directors of Student Development, academic skills tutors, teaching associates and library staff in Colleges and departments/faculties. Currently the network is hosted on a Teams site where members can communicate and share practice, and we meet in person at least once a term.
The network facilitates practice-sharing, discussions and collaborations and acts as a hub for communication around initiatives, activities and resource development.
The Skills Educators' Network grew out of the Student Skills Strategy, which was itself a commitment made in the Access & Participation Plan 2020-25. In this APP, the collegiate University committed to ensure that "our students achieve their potential, through the full and active participation in their education" and to make "the Cambridge experience richer and more diverse for everyone through our curricular, teaching, learning and assessment practices". One key step towards realising this ambition was identified in the APP as the development of a new strategy for academic, employability and life skills to support and encourage the integration of skills development into teaching and assessment practices, curricula and review processes, to be approved by the General Board's Education Committee (GBEC) and the Senior Tutors' Committee (STC).
Please get in touch with Dr Mary Beth Benbenek (mbb37@cam.ac.uk) if you would like to know more or join the network.