ABSTRACT
To question the idea of key skills may appear strange to many readers. It is now a commonplace notion (since the Dearing Report; NCIHE, 1997) that graduates should have what are called ‘transferable’, or ‘key’ skills, and that therefore universities should ensure that undergraduates are provided with opportunities to develop, and possibly be assessed in, such skills (Murphy and Otter, 1999). Yet this chapter will question this notion, or at least the currently orthodox way that the notion is presented. The aim in this chapter is to show why the orthodox view of key skills is problematic, and to present an alternative to that orthodox view.
