Hello Sagitario14:

Your question is about the translation to Spanish of the expression “prior exposure academic skills ” on the context: “The 10 week program does not assume prior exposure to academic skills, and introduces you to academic English skills and concepts in the fields of reading, writing, speaking and listening.”

ANALYSIS

Together with the question, you put over the table to possible translations as your own suggestion:
- “habilidades académicas previas?”
- or “experiencia académica previa? ”.

In the academic field, speaking in Spanish, we don’t say “habilidades académicas”, we talk about “experiencia académica”.

The Spanish terms “habilidades” and “destrezas” that are normally used as translation of “skills”, we don't use together with the term “académico/académica” despite in the academic environment, we also learn some skills like to “speak English without accent”.

By the way, Collins English Dictionary describes “skill” like:
“1) special ability in a task, sport, etc, esp ability acquired by training.
2) something, esp a trade or technique, requiring special training or manual proficiency.”

This explanation of Collins confirms my observation that the term “skill” is about “tasks” and no about thinking in the academic way.

The term “skill” is about special abilities like play tennis, speak a language without accent, or type fast and accurate numbers in a computer keyboard. But it is not about the deployment of complex mathematical or philosophical theories, or the study of the human thought.

TRANSLATION

From my perspective, the best non-textual translation is: “El programa de 10 semanas de duración, no requiere experiencia académica previa,...”.

MY PROPOSAL:
- “no requiere experiencia académica previa”

I hope this analysis helps you in your work.

Regards

Domingo

NOTE: Sources used in this analysis:
1) Collins English Dictionary
URL: http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/skill
2) Collins English Spanish Bilingual Dictionary
URL: http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-spanish/...