Karl Landsteiner Privatuniversität, Gesundheitsuni Krems, Mentoring

Skills development

Courses aimed at developing students’ skills are integrated into the Medical Science and Human Medicine degree programmes as part of the Professional Development and Skills line. In addition to helping students to qualify as doctors, these courses develop competencies in an individually targeted way, so that students can address issues that arise in practice in a proactive manner. At an individual level, this is based on the KODE® system, which allows students to conduct a self-assessment using an online questionnaire. 

After this self-assessment, students receive a written evaluation of their competence profile under normal and difficult conditions. This tells them their strengths, reveals potential for development, and prompts them to acknowledge and rank their competencies. 

The ability to reflect on competencies that are not always associated with medical expertise as a matter of course is something that must be learned, and that process needs to be guided and practised. This strengthens students’ self-confidence in practising medical skills and reveals areas of potential for further development.

"KODE® helps me to analyse my strengths and weaknesses and work on them. The assessment shows me how to work effectively with people who have different strengths than me. It helps me to identify my personal learning style and shows me how to correct my individual weaknesses and turn them into strengths. The suggested tasks help me to do this.

KL student
2nd year

“I’m in the fourth semester of my Bachelor’s degree. Since I’m still rather young compared to most of my fellow students, I tend to compare myself to others, and unconsciously I end up focusing far too much on my shortcomings. For the first time, the KODE® test helped me really look at my strengths and encouraged me to bring my personal competencies more to the fore. I now feel more confident, and the effects of the assessment are noticeable in my working life, too. For instance, my KODE® results recently helped me come across well in a job interview. The findings from the test helped me convey my strengths in teamwork and communication effectively. Following the interview, I was offered the opportunity to do a traineeship in July, so I’m convinced that I made a good impression thanks to KODE®. I’m really looking forward to the traineeship!“

KL student
2nd year