Future Ready

Build and articulate skills that matter

To be ready for success after graduation, students must recognize and articulate what they’ve learned so they can compete effectively for post-graduation opportunities. Employers sometimes report a skills gap in new college graduates — but it is also likely that graduates have the skills needed to succeed and simply struggle to articulate them in ways that make sense to employers.

Purdue University will address this articulation gap through the Future Ready initiative — a simple, repeatable method of guided reflection and skills translation that cues students to articulate their skill development. The guided reflection prompts will focus on an extended version of the existing LEAD competencies outcomes framework that defines the competencies of a Purdue graduate. Anyone working with students (e.g., academic advisors, career consultants, faculty, mentors and more) can be taught simple strategies to embed this guided reflection into their work. In this way, reflection on skill development becomes prevalent and unavoidable for students. As a result, students will better understand what skills they’ve developed at Purdue and be better prepared to drive their lifelong learning and personal/professional development.

Status of the Future Ready initiative

Future Ready is in a pilot phase during the spring and summer semesters of 2026. Approximately two dozen educators have received Future Ready training to support using its techniques with their students in internships, study abroad, advising, student success organizations, student employment and more.

If you would like more information about Future Ready, please contact Jennifer Dobbs-Oates, provost faculty fellow and clinical professor of human development and family science, at jendo@purdue.edu.

LEAD+ Competency Framework

Purdue's Leadership & Professional Development Competencies provide a cross-discipline model of leadership development and help drive the core requirements of a Purdue education.

The better you understand yourself, your skills and your abilities, the better you can direct your personal development and your life’s path.

Continuous Learning
Committing to constant expansion and improvement of skills, abilities, knowledge and understanding by adopting continuous learning strategies (e.g., seeking feedback, observing others, exploring alternatives, practicing current skills, seeking training and education, etc.).

Initiative and Follow-Through
Taking charge of a situation either individually to fill a need or motivating others to take action. Completing tasks without having to be reminded and can be trusted to carry out commitments.

Personal Responsibility
Accepting ownership for not meeting expectations or achieving desired outcomes, receives feedback from others and is able to consider it in order to develop competencies and effectiveness.

Resiliency
Facing challenges, adversity and major setbacks and learning from the experience, taking corrective action, and rising to the next challenge.

Self-Understanding
Understanding one’s beliefs, values, culture, actions, personality, strengths and weaknesses.

Effective communication includes both the sending and receiving of messages across multiple modalities of communication.

Listen and Observe
Hearing what is being said and observing nonverbal cues to prevent miscommunication, promote understanding, gather and receive feedback, and demonstrate a sense of caring about what others want to communicate.

Effectively Use Verbal/Sign, Nonverbal and Written Communication
Using spoken and/or signed communication to share information with others in a clear, concise and persuasive manner. Using body language, gestures, other cues and visual aids to support the conveyance of meaning. Using written formats to share information with others in a clear, concise and persuasive manner.

Summarize and Distill Information
Selecting, sorting and combining information in order to capture and reflect on important facts, concepts and processes, leading to increased comprehension and the ability to convey information in a concise and coherent manner.

The most skillful collaborators can function in a variety of roles on a team, depending on the circumstances and needs of the team.

Cultivate Positive Connections
Assessing a situation and engaging in interactions, relations and exchanges based on what is suitable for the context and person or people involved. Cultivating connections or associations with others that contribute positively to the well-being of those involved.

Cultural Awareness
Understanding how varied perspectives and experiences can enhance a group’s effectiveness and foster an environment in which people are able to contribute to the purpose of the work.

Helping Others and Working Together
Understanding the importance of teamwork in groups and organizations and using that understanding to foster a culture of helping others and working together.

Service
Understanding the obligation that one has to intentionally contribute to the greater good through responsible decision making and ethical actions.

Able to use complex ways of thinking such as critical thinking, systems thinking and ethical reasoning, to navigate the challenges presented by a complex and rapidly changing environment.

Decision-Making & Problem-Solving
Defines a problem or issue; identifies its potential causes; specifies a desired outcome; employs critical, practical and creative thinking skills to generate possible solutions; and identifies and implements effective criteria for choosing among possible solutions.

Have Integrity
Understanding standards and expectations for personal and professional ethical behavior by upholding an appropriate set of social norms, beliefs and cultural values (e.g., trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship). Considers implications of actions and shows an awareness of the need to hold oneself to a higher standard.

Idea Generation
Developing new and/or novel ideas through critical thinking and creative processes that address issues and/or lead to change.

Reflection and Analytical Reasoning
Considering the past and learning from success and failures — one’s own and others’ — to understand a situation, strategies used and the impact of decisions. Employing critical, practical and creative thinking skills within an ethical framework to connect disparate information; understanding the context of the situation from multiple perspectives; synthesizing information; being open-minded and flexible when considering multiple possible solutions.

Systems Thinking and Planning
Identifying tasks and setting deadlines to design, evaluate and implement strategies to answer questions or achieve desired goals. Assessing a situation, organization or network through examination of the linkages, interconnections and/or interactions of its component parts — both internal and external — to better understand how it works, to be able to navigate through ripple effects of others’ decisions and to make decisions that consider impact on a larger network or system.

Have social generativity and a commitment to being an active member of your communities. Believe your actions can make a difference.

Is an important competency missing from this chart? The “learner-identified skill” holds space for you to fill in the blank with the skill or competency of your choice.

The four reflection frames

Future Ready reflection focuses on a specific skill or competency selected from the LEAD+ framework in the context of a particular experience at Purdue University. A complete reflection includes one reflection prompt from each of the four frames listed below.

What? This frame of reflection emphasizes that students are making meaning of and synthesizing their experiences and skill development throughout the learning process.

What steps did you take to learn and develop this skill through a specific Purdue experience?
What specific evidence do you have that you developed this skill?
What Purdue course or cocurricular experience did you participate in that supported your development of this skill?
What previous experience prepared you to learn and develop this skill?
What evidence do you have that you practiced or applied this skill after you developed it?

How? As students continue to make meaning, this frame of reflection focuses on students connecting skills to their specific experiences.

PART I: How did your strengths enhance the development of this skill?
PART II: What opportunities for growth can you identify to continue building this skill?
What opportunities for growth can you identify to continue building this skill?
In what other context are you currently applying this skill, such as student organizations, part-time jobs or leadership experiences, and why?
How did this skill emerge and become evident to you?
How did you identify opportunities for growth and development to learn this skill?
How are current experiences in Purdue courses and cocurricular experiences continuing to develop this skill?

To whom? This frame of reflection encourages students to articulate their meaning across different audiences and contexts.

If you were speaking to a peer, how would you identify the who, what, when, where and why of developing this skill?
If you were in an interview, how would you describe examples of the way you developed this skill?
If you were explaining your proficiency of this skill to a faculty member, how would you describe the way you developed this skill?
If you were detailing how you developed this skill to family members, what words would you use to describe examples of the way you developed this skill?
If you were describing your skill development to a colleague who did not speak your language of origin, how would you explain it?
If you were describing your skill development in poetic form, such as a haiku or sonnet, how would you craft this?
If you were detailing your skill development through art in a museum, what art form would you choose and how would you curate the description?

For what purpose? To what end? This frame of reference invites students to imagine the future and how they may apply their skill(s) in the future.

What action steps will you take to continue developing this skill?
How will you apply this skill in the future in your classes, student clubs, leadership experiences or places of employment?
What goal have you established to continue developing this skill?
What are three experiences you can identify in the next year that will help you to continue developing this skill?
What are two strategies you plan to utilize in the next year to continue developing this skill?