The purpose of this paper is to propose a practical and simple framework of engineering employability skills that will allow the concept to be explained easily and that can be used as a framework for working with engineering graduates to develop their employability before entering workforce. The framework was developed from existing researches on engineering employability skills issues and the requirement of the accreditation of engineering programme. The various skills of employability skills related to engineering included in the framework are discussed and their criteria justified bases on literature review of existing studies. The framework sets out exactly what is meant by engineering employability, in clear and simple terms, and the framework suggests directions for interaction between the various skills. The relationships between the skills within the framework remain theoretical. Further research to test the framework is planned and will be reported in future paper. The framework can be used to explain the concept of employability to those new to the subject, and particularly to engineering students and their future employer. It will be a useful tool for lecturers, careers advisors, trainers, employers and any other practitioners involved in employability skills. It will also be used to develop a model and a measurement tool for engineering employability skills. This paper contributes insights into the linking of graduate attributes, using national accreditation criteria and the framework of engineering employability skills from locally and globally expectation. It will be of value to anybody with an interest in employability issues.
Collaborative
Strategic Reading with University EFL LearnersThe present study was an attempt to probe into the feasibility and effectiveness of a reading instructional approach called MCSR-Modified Collaborative Strategic Reading. Based on a pretest-posttest design, MCSR was implemented with 42 university-level EFL freshmen. They met once a week and received EFL reading instruction according to MCSR for 90 minutes over six weeks. A researcher-developed reading comprehension test was group-administered at pretest and posttest. Upon completion of the study, students' perceptions regarding MCSR were also evaluated by means ofan Opinionnaires. Quantitative results indicated that participating students did not demonstrate significant gains in reading comprehension skills. However, qualitative evaluation revealed that students did have positive attitudes towards MCSR. Overall, the conclusion was that EFL students' strong preference for communicative and cooperative activities runs counter to the popular thinking that disapproves group work due to students' long-standing conventional learning tradition.A s has often been demonstrated in reading literature, tailoring an effective reading instructional practice is no easy task. Undoubtedly, the difficulty of designing a reading instructional approach is due to such complex and complicated factors as linguistic, cognitive and socio-cultural variables involved in reading comprehension in general and in English as a foreign language (EFL) CSR with university EFL students 67 Downloaded by [University of Chicago Library] at
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.