Experiential Learning and Life Skills Development in Higher Education: A Practice-Based Framework for Developing Self-Directed Learners in VUCA Environments

Contemporary higher education is expected to prepare learners for far more than disciplinary examinations. Graduates increasingly enter professional and social environments characterised by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA), in which previously learned procedures are frequently insufficient for unfamiliar problems (Lemoine et al., 2017; Rouvrais et al., 2018). Employer surveys similarly indicate that analytical thinking, resilience, flexibility and collaborative capability are among the competencies most in demand, and that a substantial proportion of currently required skills are expected to change within a five-year horizon (World Economic Forum, 2025). In such environments learners require transferable life skills, including critical thinking, decision-making, communication, collaboration, self-management, emotional coping, adaptability and the capacity to reflect on experience (OECD, 2018; World Health Organization, 1997). Experiential Learning Theory (ELT), particularly the model articulated by Kolb (1984, 2015), provides a useful pedagogical lens because it situates experience, reflection, conceptual understanding and experimentation within an iterative learning process.
This paper develops a practice-based framework for understanding how experiential learning can create opportunities for life-skills development in undergraduate education. It analyses two educational cases: a business simulation and an overseas experiential-learning programme. Rather than treating participation in an activity as proof of skill development, the paper distinguishes among exposure to a skill, opportunities to practise the skill, perceived learning, observed behaviour and demonstrated competency. This distinction responds directly to the need for stronger methodological alignment between claims and evidence (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2006; Shadish et al., 2002).
The paper expands the conceptual relationship between the four ELT processes Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualisation and Active Experimentation and six life-skill domains. It further explains the role of facilitation, structured reflection, feedback, assessment and transfer (Fanning & Gaba, 2007; Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Perkins & Salomon, 1992). The previously reported improvement of more than 15% in assessment scores is retained only as a descriptive observation unless cohort, assessment-equivalence and statistical information are supplied. Similarly, student reports from the overseas programme are interpreted as perceptions rather than causal evidence (Podsakoff et al., 2003). The paper concludes with an expanded framework and a proposed empirical design using validated instruments, pre-post measurement, authentic performance tasks, qualitative evidence and delayed follow-up (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2018; Gulikers et al., 2004).

Experiential Learning Theory; life skills; higher education; Kolb; business simulation; overseas experiential learning; self-directed learning; VUCA; reflection; transfer; facilitation

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