Integration of Students’ Soft and Hard Skills in Automotive Vocational and Technical Schools

Abstract

The article presents the author’s integrated course, which is directly aimed at the parallel development of students’ soft- and hard-skills who master the profession in the automotive industry. Hard skills formation requires the acquisition of professional knowledge and implementation of instructions that can be tested through the exam. In contract, softskills include general, supra-professional skills (social, intellectual and volitional competencies, sociability, teamwork skills, leadership skills, creativity, punctuality , emotion management skills, etc.). In the coming years, significant changes are forecast in the automotive industry, in the design of heat engines, aimed not only at their improvement in particular, but also at the use of fundamentally new designs and types of engines. Under such conditions, a significant number of specialists will be forced to retrain, in the process of which fundamental training, the formation of softskills in particular, should be a significant help. It is covered a long time to quantify the effectiveness of the integrated special course, and three leading softskills (critical thinking, creativity and cognitive flexibility) are identified. It is concluded that the integration of softand hard skills is an effective means of developing knowledge, skills and thinking, which contributes to improving the professionalism of professionals. The study of the proposed author’s course gives positive changes in the professional competence of future automotive professionals.