Coming out of college, many people think their diploma alone represents everything they learned in the last few years. Equally as important as the hard skills learned in hours of classwork are the soft skills learned outside the classroom — creativity, communication, teamwork, leadership and more.

But those soft skills aren't easy to quantify, so how can you prove you have them to potential employers?

Look no further than Fanshawe's brand-new Co- Curricular Record.

The CCR is where students can list their involvement with on-campus activities such as clubs, volunteering, intramural or varsity sports — anything that was not done for academic credit or pay.

“Employers are looking for some sort of extra-curricular experience in a lot of cases, just to see that you are a well-rounded individual,” said Robert Kitchen, senior manager of Student Academic Success Services at Fanshawe. “Those kinds of things will translate well into employment within the organization.”

Sign up to create your CCR at www.fanshawec.ca/ccr. Complete your profile and select the activities you were involved in for 10 hours or more between September 2013 and April 2014. The CCR is not retroactive; you must add activities during the same academic year in which you were involved.

You will be asked to identify at least three learning outcomes — such as collaboration, interpersonal skills and professionalism — from the activity. “The learning outcomes we chose came from a document through Guelph [University] around skills that employers are looking for from students transitioning from college to employment,” said Jennifer Gillespie, campus life facilitator for Fanshawe.

When you submit your CCR, your activity listings will be forwarded to a validator for approval. According to the CCR website, a validator is “usually the College staff member or faculty member who oversees, coordinates or facilitates the activity...and can verify the authenticity of a student request.”

When your activities have been validated, you can print off your CCR and use it in your portfolio as a complementary piece to your resume. “The two of them together shows in the classroom and out of the classroom — that holistic view of all of the learning,” explained Gillespie.

Dozens of other post-secondary institutions are already on the CCR bandwagon, including Western University, Trent University and Algonquin College. Pull ahead of the job-seeker pack by getting involved on campus and establishing valuable soft-skill learning on your CCR.

For more information, check out www.fanshawec.ca/ccr. Direct questions to ccr@fanshawec.ca.