Table of Contents

Initiatives 
Talent PipelineElevating Chicago 
​Addressing Poverty, Racism and Violence ​

Soft Skills Workshop

On Tuesday, September 11, 2018, America’s Urban Campus and the Illinois Technology Association (ITA) co-hosted a workshop on the teaching and evaluation of Non-Technical Competencies. The idea for this workshop came from the Forecast Roundtables held in 2016 and 2017 between ITA member industry representatives and faculty from AUC institutions. During the sessions the company representatives emphasized their interest in hiring graduates who have had experience in team-based exercises, as well as chance to hone their communications and interactive skills.​
 
Participants​
University participants included representatives in computer science and career services from Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, National Louis University, University of Chicago and University of Illinois at Chicago.

​Industry representatives came from CCCIS, Enova, Narrative Science, Shoppertrak, and ViaStrategies. ​
​Introduction to Software Development--University of Chicago
Borja Sotomayor, Computer Science faculty member from the University of Chicago, took the suggestions from the two Forecast Round Tables at ITA into account in the development of a class for students who have just completed a two-course introductory sequence in Computer Science. The class provided for a multi-team approach to software development. He reported on the success of the program and entertained questions and suggestions from the industry and university participants on improvements for the next course, set for spring quarter, 2019.
Model for Certification of Soft Skills - Columbia College Chicago

Bill Guschwan, faculty member in Interactive Arts and Media from Columbia College Chicago presented a model for assisting faculty and students in measuring success in the development of these non-technical competencies. He described a system of badging that faculty members can modify to their curricular requirements, tracking student performance in the areas of communication, teamwork, problem solving, dispute resolution and other soft skills attributes.  Bill will work with AUC to provide these guidelines and develop the model on AUC's website.