A credential signals mastery of a competency. But there are other “hidden” skills and competencies students need to land jobs – and keep them. WGU Labs’ professional capital framework is designed to address this gap.
In our last post, we looked at how social and network capital can integrate with knowledge, skills, and abilities-building. We even tested activities in a mini course.
This post focuses on dispositional capital – an area that’s often hidden, even more so than social and network capital.
Defining dispositional capital
Dispositional capital refers to the skills that come into play after someone lands the job. The skillset answers the question,“How do I engage with my work?” Because even if a student shows real mastery of knowledge and technical skills, they can still struggle to navigate the culture, relationships, and messiness of the modern workplace.
Institutions have a structural role to play, here, creating deliberate – dare we even say, “required?” – learning experiences across three main areas:
1. Self-awareness and self-development: Understanding strengths, closing gaps, and acknowledging blind spots in social-emotional learning
2. Consistency between disposition and career: Recognizing skills that govern how we interact with our coworkers
3. Adaptation and managing change: Navigating organizational shifts and workplace complexity, handling ambiguity, and applying mindsets for learning new concepts
It is rarely an accident for a learning experience to touch all three. As educators, we can be more intentional in how we integrate dispositional capital with other learning.
Campuses are already primed to incorporate dispositional capital
Because dispositional capital is so hidden, it can be tricky to find and build. But many offices on university campuses are already primed to integrate dispositional capital-related learning experiences. Offices that focus on career development and student success – helping students think about workplace-culture fit, professional presence, collaboration, problem-solving, maintaining professional skills, and more – are good places to start.
Then there are the aspects of dispositional capital that rely on internal capacity and practice – like building emotional intelligence, managing stress and resilience, practicing collaboration and conflict, and even managing time. These are the pieces that separate a Kindergarten teacher from a college professor; both are teachers, both interact with their students in different ways, which informs their work attire and positioning in a classroom. Paying attention to how dispositional capital fits into career development, advising, and student success can help educators and administrators integrate it more intentionally across student services.
How we’re incorporating dispositional capital at WGU
Our last post covered the way we layered social and network capital into a gen-ed mini course, “Writing for the Audience.” We integrated dispositional tasks into the same course, such as a self-awareness activity that prompts students to think about their career in the context of the topic they’re currently learning. Another activity framed feedback as a critical part of professional growth.
Here’s some example text from the course:
Receiving feedback is a critical part of professional growth. When a mentor suggests changes, it isn't a critique of your ability, but an investment in your shared goals. Responding with curiosity rather than defensiveness is a key mark of a resilient professional.
Pro tip: Use the ‘Out Loud’ test. If a sentence feels difficult to say, it will be difficult for your audience to read. This is a simple way to practice self-awareness in your writing.
How to keep the conversation going
Administrators and educators should keep asking themselvesthese questions: Are students leaving our institutions prepared for professionalculture? What might already be happening on our campuses to build dispositionalskillsets?
Do any services – such as advising, counseling, and studentsuccess – bury dispositional development under other frameworks like personalwellness, rather than clearly labeling it as a professional-capital buildingexercise? Are your programs are already weaving in social-emotional learningalongside technical skills? What co-curricular programming, internships, andexperiential learning do students have access to?
Labs’ professional capital framework offers a starting point for administrators to begin thinking through these questions and working toward solutions.
Part four in our series will focus on the career navigation aspect of professional capital. Read from the beginning here: part one, part two.
