PROFESSIONALISM FOR ENGINEERS: SOFT SKILLS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION TO PREPARE FOR PROFESSIONAL LIFE

Abstract

A strong set of hard and soft skills are required for an engineer to succeed in today’s teambased workplaces. In order to prepare students for the profession, engineering education needs to focus on both. However, traditional engineering programs do not place enough emphasis on the development of soft skills, despite the guidelines specified in CDIO Standard 2: Learning Outcomes. Our proposition is that by focusing on soft skills such as self-motivation and personal leadership skills, students will be better prepared for professional practice and their academic performance will benefit as well. In this paper we present an innovative approach for teaching soft skills that we have implemented in the course “Professionalism for Engineers, PE” offered in two 5-year programs in computer science. A variety of tools are presented in the class and students get experience using them in mandatory assignments. Reflection is a fundamental assessment method in the course and reflective writing based on the Gibbs reflective cycle (Gibbs, 1988) is applied, as well as the Dialogue Seminar Method, to develop the students’ reflective ability and to allow them to learn from their own and others’ experiences. Among the lessons covered, students say the most rewarding include lessons that involve students from other disciplines, such as psychology students, and the use of the Dialogue Seminar Method with groups of students from years 1, 2, and 3. The effect this course has on academic and professional performance is hard to assess this far. Based on the experiences of the PE, a new course has been developed for two 3-year programs in computer engineering and engineering electronics. The new course is described in this paper. Students in the 5-years programs who have finished the PE will be mentors in the course.