Student core competency testimonials & student projects

Student Core Competency Testimonials

Student Core Competencies are life skills and employment skills that all students develop during their time at Lethbridge College—in addition to the subject matter expertise they acquire in their academic programs.

Read more about how the Student Core Competencies contributed to the learning experiences of two LC Multimedia Production students, both inside and outside of the classroom. As you’ll see, the skills students gain through core competency development are not only the skills that employers are looking for in new hires, they’re also skills that benefit students in their day-to-day lives.

Denise Serrano

 

The Student Core Competencies are the building blocks in my learning experience. They offered the life skills that I needed to succeed as a student. When I learned about them in my first year as a Multimedia Production student, my first thoughts were “Well, that’s common sense.” From problem-solving to critical thinking, the Core Competencies are basic skills that everyone knows and can do. Only when I learned more about them did I realize that they’re not as easy as we think. There’s more to communication than just “talking,” and there’s more to teamwork & collaboration than “helping.” 

If there’s one Core Competency skill that meant the most to me, it’s definitely communication. I grew up shy and timid, and it became worse when I moved to Canada. I don’t know anyone, and I’m still unfamiliar with speaking English so I get extremely anxious when I’m talking to someone. It came to a point that I didn’t even know who I was because I would always nod and follow along with everyone else. I told myself that I couldn’t go on like this, so I tried to get out of my comfort zone and forced myself to speak even if my whole body was shaking. It took years before I could finally open up, not just to make friends, but to be a successful student and intern at Lethbridge College.  

I now speak up about what I like and don’t like; I give and receive honest feedback to grow; I openly tell people when I’m stressed out and need a rest; and I ask a lot of questions to learn and lend help whenever needed. I’ve not only gained communication skills, but also the other core competencies to help me become who I am today. This made me realize that Core Competencies are deep, lifelong learning that can support us not only as students but also as people. 

Isaiah Vallecillo

 

The Student Core Competencies helped me to become a better student and learner, which helped me to develop my technical skills even more. I think categorizing these sets of skills and being able to develop them individually, such as communication and critical thinking really helps to actually see the results of your efforts to build these skills.  

Teamwork and Collaboration helped me make sure I was always contributing equally to group projects, ensure we were all learning, and it even helped us realize some weren’t taking on too much work. These skills are useful in day-to-day life, and getting the opportunity to work on them in classes or on projects has definitely helped me improve in these aspects in my interactions with teammates and more. 

Problem Solving is one of the competencies that has meant the most to me. I think that it has been really helpful to push me to be resilient. If I encounter an obstacle, I can find a way around it and I think that it is a skill that really works well with the other competencies. Communicating to your teammates that you might be having a problem with something is an example of a situation that can absolutely use several of these competencies at once. In the outside world, there are a lot of times that I might come across something that can impede my progress, but with a skill like problem-solving, it helps me to try my best to not let it stop me completely, whether it’s a physical obstacle or even things like a creative block. Even looking at how I was before I came to Lethbridge College, I can see so much change for the better that has definitely been (in part) due to working on these competencies and improving more each day. 

Tune in, hit play, and get inspired as Lethbridge College Multimedia Production instructor, Kris Hodgson-Bright and CTLI interns turned contract media specialists, Eric Reger and Spencer Nelson, chat with Donna about Workplace Integrated Learning (WIL) and the value of pursuing internship opportunitiesThe group also talks virtual and augmented reality’s potential as learning and training toolsand about an interesting VR project Eric and Spencer worked on for Dematica leading supplier of automated supply chain technology, during their internship.
Check out Dematic, AltspaceVR, Discord, and Skills Canada Alberta.

Student Core Competency Projects

The following posters illustrating the LC Student Core Competencies were created by our Multimedia Production students. Each poster was designed alongside an augmented reality (AR) experience. Download the Artvive app on your mobile device and point your camera at one of the posters with the app open. You’ll see the artwork come to life!