Developing 21st-Century Competencies for Job Readiness

It is a general expectation from the society that new graduates should be job ready with the necessary 21st century competencies more than a good degree. Evidence shows that participation in extracurricular activities can effectively develop students' competencies and enhance their employability. However, information is insufficient for extracurricular activity organizers to plan for the activities and for students to plan for their participation. The City University of Hong Kong has built a central repository called "CRESDA" purposely to provide a smarter way for planning extracurricular activities for different stakeholders such as organizers, students and advisors. This paper reviews the design philosophy of CRESDA and two studies conducted using CRESDA data in the academic year 2016/17 together with employers' feedbacks on placement of computer science students in the following year. It identifies the level of engagement in extracurricular activities, gaps between offering and level of participation, different needs from students of different disciplines, as well as the relationship between the level of engagement and job readiness.