creatively and effectively. Leaders alsoneed to constantly develop skills and intellectual tools to understand soft skills or people skillsand build relationships internally [48]. Results of Gitsham et al.’s [28] survey of CEOs and other executives focus on how softskills and hard skills are beneficial for leaders at all levels of the organization. Specifically,acquisition of interpersonal skills may provide added benefits of knowing and understanding ofhow to interact with people with different cultures and apply the skills to improve organizationalperformance. Soft skills are a set of interpersonal and social skills, whereas hard skills includethe technical or administrative procedures in which the results are quantifiable and measurable[43
skills. In spiteof the importance of these measures, it is also obvious that these numbers in and by themselveshave very little to say about the quality or actual impact of internationalization.European graduates have problems conveying to potential employers what soft skills they haveacquired thanks to international mobility. At the same time, Human Resource (HR) professionalsappear to know little about what skills can be developed by students on international mobility.Indeed, without a comprehensive, scientifically tested and reliably assessable framework ofglobal competence for engineers, and a tool kit to assess this competence, whatever measure auniversity will adopt to enhance and give value to global competence for engineering students
power engineering to the University ofStrathclyde in the U.K. during summer to engage in research projects and research-relatedactivities. We discuss the program need, logistics, design, and evaluation results. Each year, sixnew students participate in the program; they are selected via a nation-wide competition. Ourprimary motivation for this program is to provide students with experience in internationalresearch and help prepare the next generation of U.S. competitive STEM workforce capable ofinnovation. Moreover, the students will develop soft skills such as teamwork, oral and writtencommunication, and time management. Since the operating parameters of the electric grid (e.g.,frequency and voltage levels) are different in Europe from those
(Babury & Hayward, 2014). The challenges and progress made on some of the specific parts ofthe National Strategic Plan are discussed in the following subsections.2.1.1 Quality Assurance and Accreditation:Babury, Deputy Minister of Academic Affairs in the Afghan MoHE, and Hayward (2014)indicated that according to the World Bank, recent research that outlined the significance ofquality university education together with the need for soft skills for the national developmentrecommended the following: “University graduates need to emerge from the university system with the academic knowledge, technical competence and soft skills that make them employable in both private and public sector institutions. Hence, it is important that
knowledge at a distance, through technology. Thetechnology-enabled interventions to the course design discussed in the subsequent sectionsmay rely on technologies that are well-known and already widely-used. However, the articlefocuses on the innovative practices of the teachers and students in a particular context. Bydoing so, it attempts to demonstrate that technology integration that is closely aligned withthe learners’ needs and well thought-out pedagogical goals may maximise the learning gainsfor the students. In this particular context, within the framework of a pre-Masters languagepreparatory course for engineers, introducing networked-based learning allowed the studentsto develop a range of soft skills, or ‘professional awareness’ skills
English. However, there is specific reference to several“soft” skills such as communication and teamwork. Also, there is language that indicatesprograms should identify the knowledge and skills that graduates should possess. Life-longlearning skill is also mentioned in a number of the criteria. There is no criterion requirementequivalent to ABET’s Criterion 2. Program Educational Objectives, which ABET defines as“broad statements that describe what graduates are expected to attain within a few years aftergraduation.”10Similarities and Differences of Assessment and Evaluation RequirementsAs mentioned above, ABET and AUN-QA have adopted different approaches to continuousquality improvement. For ABET, assessment and evaluation of student outcomes
experiences should be considered asfundamental as having a course in heat transfer for a mechanical engineer,” since they allowstudents to learn a set of “soft skills” fundamentally essential to become a well-roundedengineer. In other words, an experience going abroad will grant students a fuller understandingof how to convey the knowledge learned in a classroom to others and to apply it to situationsoutside of their own comfort zone. And these sets of skills are ones that often cannot be taught ina classroom setting or at the student’s home university. Acquiring talents such as “globalmindset, collaboration, adaptability, flexibility, and learning and cultural agility” gives thestudents a lifelong set of skills that will assist them in all aspects
, “Engineering the World,” Online J. Glob. Eng. Educ., vol. 3, no. 2, Aug. 2008, [Online]. Available: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/ojgee/vol3/iss2/2.[12] L. Ferrante Perrone, “Foreign Language and the Globally Competent Engineer: More Than Just a ‘Soft Skill,’” Online J. Glob. Eng. Educ., vol. 9, no. 1, Jun. 2017, [Online]. Available: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/ojgee/vol9/iss1/2.[13] A. Mazzurco, B. Jesiek, and K. Ramane, “Are Engineering Students Culturally Intelligent?: Preliminary Results from a Multiple Group Study,” in 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, San Antonio, Texas, Jun. 2012, p. 25.204.1-25.204.10, doi: 10.18260/1-2--20964.[14] B. K. Jesiek, S. E. Woo, S. Parrigon, and C. M. Porter
includes thecurricular activities, a summary of the first-year participant demographics, and a summary ofrecorded pre/post survey responses serving to quantify student cross-cultural beliefs, reasons forparticipation, learning and expectations, and engineering teamwork effectiveness. The paper isorganized with three major sections that discuss the Implementation, Methods, and Results of theprogram. The Implementation section discusses the pre- and camp soft-skill communication andengineering activities. The Methods section covers the cross-cultural skill assessment anddemographics. Finally, the Results and Discussion section explains the analysis for reasons forparticipation, learning and expectations, teamwork effectiveness, and discussion
self-reported learning design knowledge, fundamentalengineering knowledge, Chinese cultural knowledge; In the skills domain, learningoutcomes included both hard skills (e.g. design skills, programming skills, hands-onskills and using software skills) and soft skills (e.g. time-management skills,navigations skills, people skills, and timework skills); In the attitude domain, studentsself-reported to be more hard-working, open-minded, and confident, less judgmentaland yet more respectful towards different cultures and ideas. Meanwhile, as we increasethe diversity of subject population in terms of their home countries, their engineeringdisciplines, and their degree levels, we will maintain an open mind as to new learningcomes.Our findings support