Change in the fundamental competencies for working persons after remote physical education classes in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic

<p><Purpose> The purpose of this study was to clarify the effect of remote physical education classes in college students with regards to the “Fundamental Competencies for Working Persons” initiative developed by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), during the COVID-19 pandemic. Physical education classes in college students of this study which is called SLS (Sports Life Skills) aim to improve the “Fundamental Competencies for Working Persons”. <Methods> Due to the influence of COVID-19, we asked students attending online physical education classes to self-evaluate 12 ability parameters about their own “Fundamental Competencies for Working Persons” by using questionnaires conducted at the 5th (Pre-test: the start of practical class) and 15th (Post-test: the end of practical class) classes. The subjects in this study were 188 (1st year undergraduate students: 123, 2nd year undergraduate students: 65, male: 120, Female: 65, unanswered: 3) out of 1598 students attending the online physical education classes, and who responded to both questionnaires. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare each value in Pre-test to in Post-test. <Results and discussion> The main results in this study are as follows. In the 12 competency factors, “Ability to influence” (z = -2.26, p < 0.05), “Ability to detect issues” (z = -2.48, p < 0.05), “Planning skill” (z = -2.62, p < 0.01), “Creativity” (z = -3.99, p < 0.01), “Ability to deliver message” (z = -3.95, p < 0.01), and Ability to listen closely and carefully” (z = -2.49, p < 0.05) were significantly higher in Post-test than in Pre-test. In the three competencies, only “Ability to think through (thinking)” (z = -3.85, p < 0.01) and “Ability to work in a team (teamwork)” (z = -2.25, p < 0.05) were significantly higher in Post-test than in Pre-test. It is suggested that “Ability to influence”, “Ability to detect issues”, “Planning skill”, “Creativity”, “Ability to deliver message”, and “Ability to listen closely and carefully” can be improved through online physical education classes. These results showed the effectiveness of remote physical education classes in improving 12 competency factors for the “Fundamental Competencies for Working Persons”. The results of this study could contribute to effective remote physical education classes during and even after the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, these results suggest the possibility for improvement in many of the competency factors through live (face-to face) physical education classes. Therefore, further research which will focus on how to improve those competencies will be necessary in the future.</p>