skills (12.4%) and communication skills (13.2%) represents an increase fromprevious studies. Feedback from recruiters and employers demonstrates the importance ofembedding “soft skills,” like teamwork and communication, into the educational experiences ofstudents in order to prepare them for future demands.6Teamwork Skills Can Be Developed Through Collaborative Learning ExperiencesAlthough there are varying names and strategies, generally collaborative learning represents aninstructional method where students work together to accomplish structured tasks. Kaufman,Felder, and Fuller7 described five conditions that need to be met in the design of collaborativelearning experiences: “positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to
& Business Development Professionals to Create Globally Competent Engineers via On- and Off-Campus ActivitiesAbstractEfforts to scale curricular and co-curricular experiences designed to foster globally competentengineers sit at an important crossroads. Education for global competency, along with thedevelopment of other “professional” or “soft” skills, is an important part of the formation of 21stcentury engineers. There is broad agreement that, “US engineers [of 2020] will face totallydifferent problems from the ones we face today” and “will have to be open to different religions,different ways of thinking, and different social values.”1 However, consensus does not existregarding how to cultivate globally