Impact Skills

The Impact Skills Accelerator (ISA) forms part of the core curriculum and is a critical element of the new IE Business School educational proposal denominated “The Next Best You.” At IE Business School, we believe in education as a transformational experience, personally and professionally, to drive positive change. It must go beyond the acquisition of knowledge and the development of business acumen.

The mission of ISA focuses on the student development of durable skills that help every professional catalyze action and results to have a real impact in the workplace. ISA allows our students to develop their Next Best You by providing them with training and support that includes a range of useful frameworks and tools. It is our brand promise to students, and aligned with what we believe will be the fast-approaching “future of work.”

ISA contains a selection of useful frameworks, tools, and activities based on a set of Thinking, Behavioral, and Digital skills.

The competencies for each skill category will be developed through different knoledge areas workshops which will be compulsory for all students.

You can see below in this page the different workshops across the three skills.

ISA’s teaching methodology will have a radically different approach from core courses, based on active learning strategies that are very experiential and applied to achieve significant and meaningful learning:

• Based on the application of toolkits & frameworks associated with the workshop.
• With the support of Ed-Tech solutions that add value to the student’s learning experience: virtual reality applications, and specific software solutions.

Examples of ISA activities include:

• Decision-making simulations and games
• Debates, role plays, and negotiations
• Project-based activities and guided designs
• Building portfolios and creative projects
• Feedback sessions and peer review activities
• Mind maps, reflective journals, and action plans
• Student presentations and pitches

The ISA workshops will follow a continuous evaluation approach. The majority of workshops will be graded with NGS/NGU (Non-Graded Satisfactory performance / Non-Graded Unsatisfactory performance), and the grade for each workshop will appear on the student’s final transcript.

Critical Thinking will be the only workshop to follow the standard criteria of Honors, Excellence, Proficiency, Pass or Fail even though the curve won’t be applied.

All students who obtain their NGS will receive a digital credential (badge) that will serve to verify their learning achievements and accredit them in all kinds of digital networks and environments. Students who obtain an NGU will not receive their digital badge.

To obtain an NGS, it will be necessary for students to acknowledge and comply with the following elements:

1. Attendance -> Attend class consistently (make-up activities will not be allowed).
2. Participation and delivery of ongoing workshops assignments -> Participate actively during activities; individually and in teams as requested and submit the deliverables defined for each of the workshops.

Additionally, upon completion of ISA, only the students who have satisfactorily completed each and every one of the ISA workshops with NGS will receive an additional Impact Skills Accelerator Certificate issued by IE Business School on top of the Master’s diploma.