In today’s dynamic and unpredictable world, business schools are expected to prepare graduates to thrive in professional and societal contexts by equipping them with future skills. Among these, collaboration skills—the ability to work effectively in diverse and changing projects and groups—are increasingly critical. To foster such competencies, many business schools have integrated group assignments into academic assessments, reflecting their focus on applied, action-oriented learning tied to real-world challenges.

However, students often perceive group assignments as an additional burden rather than a valuable learning experience. They cite issues such as unfair grading caused by free-riding, limited tangible learning outcomes, and inappropriate group formation. These concerns undermine the goal of strengthening transversal competencies like effective team collaboration. In addition, lecturers tend to prioritize subject-specific over social skills and often lack the expertise to design, facilitate, and assess teamwork effectively.

In response to those challenges, the TeamCollaboration Toolbox was developed collaboratively with lecturers and students. This voluntary toolbox is hosted on the institution’s learning platform and contains self-study materials, checklists and guidelines. The tools support the students in distributing tasks equitably, addressing free-riding behavior, doing profound individual and group reflection, and providing constructive feedback. Lecturers benefit from guidance on organizing meaningful group assignments considering recommendations on appropriate group sizes and strategies for aligning collaboration-related learning objectives.

The toolbox was implemented in courses featuring integrated teamwork and evaluated by 211 students at the end of the semester. Results showed that it positively impacted students’ teamwork experience, with many indicating they would continue using it in future projects.

Despite the benefits of the toolbox, its use among lecturers is still very low. Furthermore, in courses that include group assignments collaboration-related objectives are often absent or overshadowed by subject-specific objectives.

To address these gaps, a systematic literature review is being conducted to identify obstacles hindering the shift toward the addressed level of collaboration competency in teaching practices and curricula. The findings distinguish between the need for improvements at the level of program leadership and individual lecturers.

The paper offers recommendations for fostering this didactic transition by ensuring that group assignments align more closely with the competency development goals of a study program. By addressing current challenges and prioritizing collaboration skills across curricula, business schools can better prepare graduates for the collaborative demands of modern workplaces while enhancing the perceived value of teamwork as an effective learning method.

Keywords: Education, collaboration, future skills, group assignments, teamwork.