A STUDY OF IMPLEMENTING AN INTERDISCIPLINARY PROJECT TO PROMOTE NECESSARY SOFT SKILLS FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghada Salama ◽  
Mohammed Ayub
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Interdisciplinary Project

Soft Skills in Engineers, a Relevant Field of Research: Exploring and Assessing Skills in Italian Engineering Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Caggiano ◽  
Teresa Redomero-Echeverría ◽  
Jose-Luis Poza-Lujan ◽  
Andrea Bellezza
Keyword(s):  
Impression Management ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Reference Sample ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Change Perception ◽  
Emotional Adaptation ◽  
Challenging Tasks ◽  
Relevant Field

Soft skills are important for any career and are necessary to access and face the labor market. This research focuses on soft skills by exploring engineer profiles. It also determines how soft skills are developed through the study of a representative sample of 314 undergraduate engineering students from 15 different Italian universities. The instrument used is a questionnaire that investigates soft skills and is based on the Business-focused Inventory of Personality (BIP). Answers are grouped into four areas: intrapersonal, interpersonal, activity development, and impression management. Results show that these engineers have more self-confidence than the reference sample; they demonstrated a great commitment in setting job goals and pursuing projects, a good emotional adaptation to social situations, and enough attitudes in terms of problem solving and openness to change. Perception on the ability to work under pressure is in the average, and they seem ready to take on challenging tasks. The score shows that engineers from the sample are able to express positive and negative ideas and feelings in balance with the reference average, but sometimes they have difficulties in establishing personal relationships. Therefore, they are unable to understand the moods of those who around them and may also have difficulty in understanding their expectations. This results in some difficulties in teamwork. The general result underlines the opportunity of empowerment programs regarding soft skills.

scholarly journals Do Soft Skills matter? A Study on Employability of Engineering Graduates in Bangladesh

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 21-44
Author(s):  
Rumana Afroze ◽  
Tamanna Parvin Eva ◽  
Atiqur Rahman Sarker
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
University Graduates ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
Human Skills ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Objective: University graduates in Bangladesh are presently confronted with high job competition. Because of less job availability, engineering graduates are facing more challenges in getting job opportunities than business graduates. Moreover, engineering graduates are more proficient in technical skills than with their human skills. The most important barrier for engineering graduates’ employability at their initial stage of career is that they have less focus on acquisition of their soft skills. Therefore, this study is concentrating to analyse the current situation of the engineering graduates’ soft skills deficiency and to investigate the impact of having soft skills on employability. Methodology:The nature of the study is qualitative and data has been gathered through in-depth interview and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Respondents of in-depth interview are experienced engineers and HR experts who are working in engineering based organizations especially at the power solution service providing companies in Bangladesh. FGD among final year undergraduate engineering students has also been conducted to validate the interview data. Thematic analysis is used to analyse the qualitative data. Findings:The impact of having soft skills in getting employment of new graduates at the entry level is identified in this paper. Value Added: Higher education can assist in developing employability through increasing employment prospect and also achieving individual learning goals. However, fresh engineering graduates have social skills gap and lack of practical knowledge which can be reduced through acquiring soft skills. Different techniques such as self-training, institutional training, joining language sessions, attending presentation skills development classes and social programs can assist graduates in the acquisition of soft skills. Recommendations: As the most important reason of engineers’ unemployment is the lacking of collaboration between industry and academic institutions, this study focuses to draw the attention of engineering students, educational institutes and policy makers to highlight the importance of developing soft skills for employability and career growth.

scholarly journals WHY DOES IT MATTER? EXPLAINING THE IMPORTANCE OF COMPLEMENTARY STUDIES TO FIRST-YEAR ENGINEERING STUDENTS

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Donald ◽  
Sofie Lachapelle ◽  
Thomas Sasso ◽  
Kyle Augusto ◽  
M. Gloria Gonzalez-Morales
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
First Year ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Engineering Curriculum ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Soft Skill ◽  
Daily Work ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
The University

While complementary studies are an accreditation requirement and feature prominently in the Canadian engineering curriculum, focus-group conversations with upper-year engineering students have indicated that a lack of awareness of, and appreciation for, soft skills development often prevents students from benefiting from complementary studies to the fullest. Given this reported difficulty to grasp the importance of complementary studies, a study was undertaken at the University of Guelph using a quasi-experimental design to explore the possibility that triggering self-assessment and awareness about career development early in the engineering curriculum promotes greater engagement with complementary studies and soft-skill development. First-year engineering students took part in a learner-centered activity focused on the importance of complementary studies for the development of soft skills. Through active learning exercises and case studies of successful engineering graduates, who described the skills and knowledge required to perform their daily work, the session was designed to encourage students to develop greater self-awareness and intentionality about complementary studies and their associated graduate attributes. The outcomes of this activity and issues on how to embed it in the Engineering first-year curriculum will be discussed

scholarly journals Students’ perceptions of the project based on the potential of their region: A Project-based learning implementation

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 295
Author(s):  
Syahril Syahril ◽  
Rahmat Azis Nabawi ◽  
Dian Safitri
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Method ◽  
Interpersonal Skills ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Skills Acquisition ◽  
Ability To Work ◽  
Management Communication ◽  
Method Approach

Developing engineering students whose ability to work and make a real contribution to the development of technology can be done not only after they have graduated from college but also when they are still in college. One of the strategies is by implementing project-based learning with the project based on the potential of the student's region. This study aims to reveal students’ perceptions of learning and soft skills acquisition toward the implementation of the strategy to answer whether the project is effective to implement. This study was conducted on fifty-one Indonesian college students who took Mechanical Drawing course. It belongs to a one-shot case study with mixed-method approach. The result shows that the project based on the potential of the student’s region is effective to raise their perception of motivation, interest, real-world, very beneficial, learning more lecture and enjoyable so that they learn more actively and provide more time to study. It also develops students’ soft skills, including teamwork, project management, communication, and interpersonal skills. The results may have pedagogical implications in improving learning quality in Mechanical Drawing course by enriching project references used in implementing project-based learning. Furthermore, the project given can be a solution in developing the potential of the students’ regions.

scholarly journals Engaging Software Engineering Students with Employability Skills

2016 ◽  
pp. 1765-1802
Author(s):  
Jocelyn Armarego
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Software Engineering ◽  
Longitudinal Data ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Learning Objectives ◽  
Employability Skills ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Engineering Software ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering

This chapter explores the findings from an Action Research project that addressed the Professional Capability Framework (Scott & Wilson, 2002), and how aspects of this were embedded in an undergraduate Engineering (Software) degree. Longitudinal data identified the challenges both staff and students engaged with. The interventions that were developed to address these are described and discussed. The results of the project show that making soft skills attainment explicit as part of the learning objectives went a long way in assisting students to engage with the activities that exercised these skills.

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