Teaching Soft Skills in Engineering Education: An European Perspective

Manuel Caeiro-Rodriguez,Jaanus Terasmaa,Fernando A Mikic-Fonte,Manuel J Fernandez-Iglesias,Carlos Vaz De Carvalho,Olivier Heidmann,Triinu Jesmin,Martin Llamas-Nistal,Lene Tolstrup Sorensen,Mario Manso-Vazquez,Hariklia Tsalapatas

doi:10.1109/access.2021.3059516

Abstract

Higher Education engineering students need to be prepared to address sustainable solutions to the complex problems faced in this century. They should become proficient problem solvers, able to work in multidisciplinary teams, ready to adapt to new technologies, and able to acquire new knowledge and skills when needed. Usually known as soft skills, these competences play a key role in Engineering and have being taught in the last two decades, to a greater or lesser extent, using different methodologies and tools. This study reviews the promotion and teaching of soft skills in Higher Education across 5 European countries: Greece, Estonia, Denmark, Portugal and Spain. It provides an overview of best practices on these countries, focusing also on technological solutions to actually enable the development of soft skills. The purpose of this research is to shed some light about how soft skills are being taught presently and the difficulties involved in that process.

Highlights

Higher Education (HE) engineering students will face complex personal and professional challenges such as sustainable management of natural resources, climate change mitigation, global health issues like the current COVID-19 pandemic, natural risk management, etc. [1]
The course focuses on the design and implementation of digital games and covers topics that include the definition of games and play, characteristics of digital games, game taxonomies and game genres, understanding different groups of users, designing a game concept, designing elements of game worlds, designing a game story, designing game characters, designing the core mechanics of a game, understanding game dynamics and the experience of users, ensuring that a game is balanced according to the needs of users, introducing elements of chance, understanding the characteristics of on-line games, understanding the principles of creative play, developing marketing strategies, etc
They value more the importance of soft skills such as meta-cognitive, intrapersonal or problem solving, than technical skills. This perception is justified because it is commonly accepted by students, especially those in the last years of their studies, or those enrolled in graduate programs, that technical skills are an integral part of their education as engineers and are not perceived as ‘‘traversal’’ or ‘‘soft’’

Summary

Introduction

Higher Education (HE) engineering students will face complex personal and professional challenges such as sustainable management of natural resources, climate change mitigation, global health issues like the current COVID-19 pandemic, natural risk management, etc. [1]. Tackling these challenges requires a wide range of knowledge and skills from diverse subject areas, Engineering and Economics, in order to achieve viable and sustainable solutions. Skills such as digital literacy, independent and autonomous learning, openness to criticism, assertiveness or. There is a growing interest in Europe on the development of soft skills in HE and, during the last two decades, educational curricula across Europe were introducing them at all levels, to a greater or lesser extent. There are many variations on how soft skills are named, like 21st-century skills, general competencies, key competences, transversal competencies, etc. and it is

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