Diploma in Personal, Communicative and Professional Skills

The Diploma in Personal, Communicative and Professional Skills aims to enhance the skills most in demand in our society, through both the business world and the various different population, training and collaborative groups.

We consider these cross-cutting skills (or soft skills) to be essential as part of the comprehensive training approach that characterises our institution. Our target is all-round development, meaning training our students to be good professionals and better people focused on providing the best service.

All the subjects that are specific to the diploma will have a corresponding teaching guide. Such guides will describe the content, the skills to be acquired and the pertinent results of the learning experience, the teaching methodology and assessment information.

· Self-knowledge
· Efficient use of time and stress management
· Oral and written communication in a professional setting
· Teamwork
· Entrepreneurship
· Ability in service to others

The diploma will consist of 27.5 ECTS. Specific skills learned in the subjects of the Bachelor’s Degrees in Education, Communication and Sports Science will account for 13.5 of these ECTS (7.5 in the case of Nursing). The subject modules are listed below, giving the total number of related ECTS and a short description.

1. Academic Oral and Written Communication Techniques (3 ECTS).
The aim of this module is to enable students to acquire and develop the most efficient oral and written communication skills and tools for their academic and professional endeavours. It is made up of two parts:

Oral communication: Using an eminently practical approach, this course will address the aspects involved in the process of oral communication (non-verbal language, kinesics, the body as a vehicle for expression, the connotative values of language, pace, rhythm, intonation, accent, how pauses are spaced, etc.). In addition, the first part of the module will go over the basic concepts of verbal communication (techniques for public speaking, eloquence, dialectics, rhetoric, etc.).
Academic writing: The second part will tackle the basic issues inherent in producing quality texts (coherence, cohesion, types of discourse markers, etc.) and how to adapt to different writing formats, in both analogical media and digital platforms. It will also stimulate knowledge among students on proper use of a bibliography and the rules on citations, seeking to prevent actions relating to plagiarism or appropriation of the ideas of others.

2. Coaching in a Health Setting (4 ECTS). ONLY IN NURSING
This subject will offer future nurses the coaching tools and skills that will enable them to work with their patients from a different perspective. Healthcare coaching strengthens the relationship between health professionals and patients. Through improving this interpersonal connection, the intention is to help patients assume an active role and greater personal responsibility (and motivation towards therapy). For students, it also involves personal growth in self-knowledge and managing their emotions.

3. Personal Skills (2 ECTS).
This module develops basic study and learning skills, both from the organisational point of view (including learning and time planning and management) and from the perspective of managing emotions, personal motivation, coping with failure, and developing confidence and assertiveness.

4. Mindfulness (2 ECTS).
This module aims to introduce students to mindfulness, to enable them to learn to live more in the moment, boosting attention and reducing stress. The subject will be taught using methodology with a practical and experience-based focus that will help personal development that will make it possible to transfer the skills acquired to a professional setting.

5. English for Professional Purposes (6 ECTS).
In Nursing, this module will provide the linguistic abilities in English required by students to be able to understand and develop a specialised vocabulary related to various healthcare areas, as well as enabling them to communicate with foreign patients.
Transferable credits will also be obtained from the following degree modules: English for Professional Communication in Sports (Sports Science), English for Education II (Education) and English for Communication (Communication).

5. Professional Ethics (6 ECTS). ONLY FOR NURSING, SPORTS SCIENCE AND COMMUNICATION
Transferable credits are obtained for the module Professional Ethics (Sports Science) and Ethics and Professional Standards in Communication (in Bachelor’s degrees relating to Communication). In Nursing, transferable credits are obtained for Bioethics (3 ECTS) and for Professional Ethics and Healthcare Legislation (3 ECTS) in the Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing. The module aids students in order to guide their vocation and professional endeavours, enabling them to develop their analytical and critical skills and their awareness and commitment in the ethical-social aspects of the profession.

6. Entrepreneurship (2 ECTS). ONLY IN EDUCATION, SPORTS SCIENCE AND COMMUNICATION
This subject seeks to provide students with the criteria to both identify business opportunities and innovate in developing new business projects, as well as to formulate a job search strategy and set out their own career development plans.

7. Ignatian Leadership (2 ECTS).
This module will look at elements of the life and experience of Ignatius of Loyola, which shaped him as a leader with his own characteristic style. It will explain the elements that make up the framework for what can be called Ignatian leadership. This style of leadership is characterised by a series of interpersonal, interpersonal and social skills, as well as strategic and management skills.
The module also puts forward aspects related to Ignatian discernment and decision making.

8. Self-knowledge and Teamwork (6 ECTS). ONLY IN EDUCATION
Transferable credits are obtained for the module Developing Teaching Personality (degrees in Education). For this subject, the approach focuses on the experience of belonging to a team and cooperation for professional development, rooted in self-knowledge and self-regulation.

9. Learning and Service (3 ECTS).
The goal of this module is to complete the comprehensive training and value-based learning, which is characteristic of our institution, through a vocation for service and helping others. Learning and Service is a subject which applies the knowledge learned to continue learning, doing service to the community. It represents learning WITHIN service.
The aim is for students to know how to apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired over the course of their degree studies to specific issues, while doing service to the community, with a particular focus on people in vulnerable situations and/or at risk of exclusion and their circumstances.

10. Creating and Presenting Dissertations (1.5 ECTS).
Integrated into the dissertation, this module covers the skills related to presenting and publicly defending your dissertation, as well as to preparing the written element (dissertation seminars).

1. All students who wish to obtain the Diploma must enrol for it at the beginning of the first year of their respective Bachelor’s degree or dual degree programmes at University College Alberta Giménez.
2. To obtain the Diploma, the student must pass all the subjects of which it consists.
3. The academic record for the Diploma will list all the subjects included in the Diploma, both those integrated into the student’s official degree programme and those specific to the Diploma.
4. If a student has failed to pass any of the Diploma modules corresponding to the previous academic year, when enrolling for the next academic year the student must enroll for those (pending) modules in addition to those corresponding to the academic year the student is going to begin.
5. In each academic year, the student will be entitled to two attempts to pass the examination for each Diploma module they have enrolled for.
6. All students who are enrolled are entitled to four consecutive attempts to pass the examination for each of the modules of the Diploma, provided that they have not lost their student status according to the Academic Regulations. In the event of special circumstances, the Director may grant a student two additional attempts to pass, upon receipt of a reasoned written request from the student.

The fee for each credit for the diploma for the 2022-2023 academic year represents 50% of the fees set for enrolment and tuition for each credit in each of the Bachelor’s and dual degree programmes of University College Alberta Giménez (CESAG) (please see page containing the fees for each degree for more details).

The following modules of the Diploma recognise the credits obtained from the Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood or Primary School Education:

Degree module: English for Education II (6 ECTS)
Diploma module: English for Professional Purposes (6 ECTS)

Degree module: Developing Teaching Personality (6 ECTS)
Diploma module: Self-knowledge and Teamwork (6 ECTS)

Degree module: Dissertation (6 ECTS)
Diploma module: Creating and Presenting Dissertations (1.5 ECTS)

The following modules of the Diploma recognise the credits obtained from the Bachelor’s degrees in Journalism, Media Studies and Advertising and Public Relations:

Degree module: English for Communication (6 ECTS)
Diploma module: English for Professional Purposes (6 ECTS)

Degree module: Ethics and Professional Standards in Communication (6 ECTS)
Diploma module: Professional Ethics (6 ECTS)

Degree module: Dissertation (6 ECTS)
Diploma module: Creating and Presenting Dissertations (1.5 ECTS)

The following modules of the Diploma recognise the credits obtained from the Bachelor’s degree in Sports Science (CAFYD):

Degree module: English for Professional Communication in Sports (6 ECTS)
Diploma module: English for Professional Purposes (6 ECTS)

Degree module: Professional Ethics (6 ECTS)
Diploma module: Professional Ethics (6 ECTS)

Degree module: Dissertation (6 ECTS)
Diploma module: Creating and Presenting Dissertations (1.5 ECTS)

Degree module:Bioethics (3 ECTS)+ Professional Ethics and Healthcare Legislation (3 ECTS)
Diploma module: Professional Ethics (6 ECTS)

Degree module: Dissertation (6 ECTS)
Diploma module: Creating and Presenting Dissertations (1.5 ECTS)