Kentucky Graduate Profile

The Kentucky Graduate Profile is the state's postsecondary learning framework. It is an effort to align the knowledge, skills and abilities that students gain in college with the skills needed for success in the workforce and in life.

All students graduating from public postsecondary institutions in Kentucky should have multiple, intentional opportunities to develop these 10 Essential Skills through the institution's curriculum and co-curricular offerings.

The 10 Essential Skills

Specifying the skills gained through the college experience gives faculty, staff, students and employers a way to talk about the value of higher education. Students gain these 10 Essential Skills that help them be successful in their first job, throughout their career, and in their personal, social and civic lives.

The 10 Essential Skills framework helps provide structure and coherence to the college experience. It allows students to better understand the purpose of general education, how general education connects to their majors, and how their majors connect to life after college.

Download the 10 essential skills icons (.zip file)

The 10 Essential Skills

	Communicate effectively.		Perform professionally within their chosen field of study or occupation.
	Think critically in order to solve problems and create new ideas and solutions.		Engage in civic life to improve society.
	Apply quantitative reasoning skills to analyze and solve numerical problems.		Collaborate and work in teams.
	Interact effectively with people from diverse backgrounds.		Apply academic knowledge, skills and abilities to their chosen career.
	Adapt to changing circumstances while leading and supporting others.		Use information for decision making.

Definition and Demonstration of the 10 Skills

Teams of faculty, staff and employers joined together to identify the knowledge associated with each Essential Skill and behaviors that measure each skill. K-12 partners were invited to provide the secondary school context for this work. The goals of this phase of work were to:

• Develop shared, competency-based definitions for each of the 10 Essential Skills;
• Identify measurable indicators of different levels of student mastery of each skill;
• Create a toolkit of assignments and resources that faculty may choose to use when integrating and assessing these skills in their programs and courses.
• Foster collaboration among faculty and staff across disciplines and institutions.
• Build stronger partnerships between higher education institutions and employers.

The 10 Essential Skills are defined as:

1. Communicate effectively: Graduates will communicate effectively by listening, weighing influencing
   factors, and responding accurately and professionally. They will express their
   thoughts coherently in writing, orally, and in formal presentations. 
2. Think critically in order to solve problems and create new ideas and solutions: Graduates will think critically by evaluating assumptions and assessing information to make informed conclusions. They will also think creatively by combining ideas in original ways or developing new ways of addressing issues.
3. Apply quantitative reasoning skills to analyze and solve numerical problems: Graduates will hone their ability to provide solutions guided by data and choose the best methodologies for arriving at informed conclusions. 
4. Interact effectively with people from different backgrounds: Graduates will reflect on their own cultural identities, appreciate cultural and intellectual differences, and effectively interact with people from different backgrounds. They will collaborate, communicate, and work respectfully with
   people with different perspectives, ideas, and cultural beliefs. 
5. Adapt to changing circumstances while leading and supporting others: Graduates will accept change and find effective ways to work and thrive in different settings. They will motivate others in the pursuit of a common goal and coach others in the pursuit of this goal.
6. Perform professionally within their chosen field of study or occupation: Graduates will adhere to the code of ethics in their chosen profession and act with honesty and fairness. They will prioritize their tasks, manage their time, take initiative, and demonstrate accountability and reliability.
7. Engage in civic life to improve society: Graduates will engage in political, social, and other activities to address issues that benefit society.  
8. Collaborate and work in teams: Graduates will collaborate with colleagues, become effective team
   members, and manage conflict. 
9. Apply academic knowledge, skills, and abilities to their chosen career: Graduates will articulate and apply the theoretical content of their academic preparation with relevant knowledge and abilities essential to their chosen career. 
10. Use information for decision making: Graduates will identify, evaluate, and responsibly use information needed for decision making.

These teams created performance indicators that differentiate between three levels of student achievement: baseline, milestone and capstone.

• At the baseline level, learners are at the level of high school completion; they are beginning to acquire the knowledge or skill but may need guidance or support. Baseline is how a learner would perform at the level of high school completion.
• At the milestone level, learners can demonstrate competence independently. This is the performance expected at the associate's level or halfway through a bachelor's degree program.
• The capstone level describes what learners can do at the completion of their bachelor's degree, applying the competency with the expertise and precision.

Benchmark Levels of Mastery for Each Skill

1. Communicate effectively.
2. Think critically in order to solve problems and create new ideas and solutions.
3. Apply quantitative reasoning skills to analyze and solve numerical problems.
4. Interact effectively with people from diverse backgrounds.
5. Adapt to changing circumstances while leading and supporting others.
6. Perform professionally within their chosen field of study or occupation.
7. Engage in civic life to improve society.
8. Collaborate and work in teams.
9. Apply academic knowledge, skills and abilities to their chosen career.
10. Use information for decision making.

Alignment with P-12 and Employers

Kentucky's P-12 learning framework is known as the Portrait of the Learner (PoL). Adopted by the Kentucky Department of Education, the PoL identifies a model set of skills that learners need before they leave school. CPE staff has worked closely with KDE staff to ensure alignment of the state's P-12 and postsecondary learning frameworks. This alignment is illustrated below.

Essential Skills Crosswalk: KDE's Portrait of a Learner and CPE's Kentucky Graduate Profile

Portrait of a Learner (KDE)	Kentucky Graduate Profile (CPE)
Effective Communicator	Communications
Critical Thinker Creative Contributor	Critical Thinking
Empowered Learner Critical Thinker	Quantitative Reasoning
Engaged Citizen Effective Communicator Productive Collaborator	Cultural Competency
Empowered Learner Creative Contributor Productive Collaborator Effective Communicator	Leadership and Adaptability
Effective Communicator Empowered Learner Productive Collaborator	Professionalism
Engaged Citizen	Civic Engagement
Productive Collaborator Creative Contributor	Teamwork
Empowered Learner	Applied and Integrated Learning
Effective Communicator Critical Thinker	Information Literacy

The Graduate Profile is also closely aligned with national postsecondary frameworks, as well. These include the American Association of Colleges and Universities' Essential Learning Outcomes, the Quality Assurance Commons' eight Essential Employability Qualities, and the national Association of Colleges and Employers' Competencies for a Career-Ready Workforce.

Graduate Profile Academy

In 2021, CPE created the Kentucky Graduated Profile Academy (GPA) to identify and celebrate the academic programs where essential skills are already embedded, developed, articulated and demonstrated on participating campuses -- allowing members to share these practices across campuses. Every public institution in the state participates in this work.

As part of the GPA, each institution has a leadership team comprised of high-level academic administrators, faculty leaders, student affairs administrators, and other campus leaders. Each team is committed to reviewing its institution's academic and co-curricular programs with the support and guidance of CPE staff, data and tools. The ultimate goal is for continuous improvement of all programming to ensure high-quality relevant education for all Kentucky students.

The GPA teams progress since 2021 includes increasing the visibility and influence of the 10 Essential Skills among faculty, staff and students. Teams have approached this work in their own ways, and some evidence of continuous improvement, thus far, includes:

• Enhancing faculty development to gain support of the idea that every academic program must be high-quality, relevant and equitable for all students.
• Identifying the 10 Essential Skills as the institution's SACSCOC Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).
• Mapping the curriculum, reflecting where the 10 Essential Skills are introduced, reinforced and mastered in each academic program.
• Improving instruction, including making teaching and learning more transparent to students and teaching students meta-cognitively how to learn.
• Communicating with students the importance of the 10 Essential Skills by incorporating them into the first-year course, adding statements to the course syllabi, and making the skills visible via posters, t-shirts, icons, etc., as part of the campus culture.
• Collaborating, campus-to-campus, by attending GPA in-person meetings, the annual Student Success Summit, and the state's annual faculty development conference.