Peer-led team learning has proven to be a great way to enhance the skills of workshop peer leaders in a multitude of academic programs. The role of a peer leader specifically is shown to impact content learning, presentation skills, teamwork skills, the appreciation for what it takes to be a teacher, group facilitation skills, as well as others. These skills learned from being a peer leader, however, do not terminate at the end of one’s undergraduate program. These skills stay with individuals into the workplace in a variety of areas. Former peer leaders seem to value these experiences to the extent that many of them denote having been a peer leader on their LinkedIn profile. This study examines the value of being a peer leader as it relates to one’s current position. This value was obtained by examining the transferable skills that former peer leaders recognize as important in their current positions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with former peer leaders from varying disciplines, universities, ages, and years since being a peer leader. Thematic analyses of these interviews indicate that former peer leaders recognize leadership skills, the ability to cope with many challenges (including not having the right answer), collaboration/teamwork skills, self-confidence, and problem-solving skills all as being relevant and frequently used in their current work. The various constructs identified here show the value of being a peer leader post-graduation and inside one’s profession. These data also lend themselves to a larger quantitative survey to be developed in the future.

Transferrable skills gained from experience as a peer-leader in a PLTL program: Reflections, applications, and long-term impacts on professional lives

255th National Meeting (2018)

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