A hard stop to the term “soft skills”

Abstract

As everyone is aware, languages, economics, and social sciences are generally treated as "extras" in [engineering] curricula, and are as generally regarded as superfluous "chores" by the students. The difficulty in present school practices evidently lies in the exclusion from the technical work of all consideration of the questions of human values and costs; and, conversely, the isolation of the humanistic studies from all technical interest. (Mann, 1918, p. 92) Engineering education in the United States grapples prodigiously with the role that humanities should play in the formation of engineers. Founders in our discipline like Charles Mann (1918) and William Wickenden (1926, 1927, 1938) laid the groundwork for the inclusion of humanities, social sciences, and communication in the engineering curriculum even before the Grinter Report described recommendations that included "a continuing, concentrated effort to strengthen and integrate work in the humanistic and social sciences into engineering programs [and] an insistence upon the development of a high level of performance in the oral, written, and graphical communication of ideas" (Committee on Evaluation of Engineering Education, 1955Education, /1994. All these publications, which might have been written just yesterday but for the antiquated language, formed the architecture for today's accreditation standards, the effects of which have been thoroughly reviewed by other scholars (e.g.,

Embedding sustainability in university work experience placements: a De Montfort University model

“…This would contribute towards better preparing students for employment and the wider world. This position is supported by earlier research publications that stress the need for greater emphasis on soft skills development (Berdanier, 2022; Burns, 2013; Lourdel et al. , 2007).…”

“…This would contribute towards better preparing students for employment and the wider world. This position is supported by earlier research publications that stress the need for greater emphasis on soft skills development (Berdanier, 2022;Burns, 2013;Lourdel et al, 2007). The students' role as sustainability champions was viewed favourably by employers and students, which is certainly a positive thing.…”

Surviving, thriving, departing, and the hidden competencies of engineering graduate school

“…If advisors can help their students identify threshold concepts, articulate barriers, brainstorm effective solutions, and enact an agentic plan for problem‐solving, facilitated through professional development, it is likely that graduate students will develop sustained trust in their advisor and department, and more faith in their own ability to solve complex problems. In this study, it is also noteworthy that none of the hidden competencies related to research techniques, math, methods, or laboratory skills (e.g., what some would call “hard” or “technical” skills), but rather, were oriented to the underlying professional competencies that are the foundations on which productive science is built, confronting the ironic typical regard for these competencies as “soft” skills (Berdanier, 2022).…”

“…It should be noted that even the research competencies theme comprises skills that participants described to be "soft" or professional skills, rather than "hard" or domain-knowledge skills, a false dichotomy spurring problematic language that is harmfully entrenched (Berdanier, 2022). We posit that this feature is illuminating-these participants, even the ones that struggled significantly in graduate school and perhaps chose to depart from their programs, did not identify specific domain knowledge, laboratory techniques, mathematical foundations, or having more or different coding expertise (as examples) as being primary barriers to success in graduate school.…”

Engineering as ethics in action: Please talk about gun violence in your engineering classes

“…Furthermore, by discussing a problem that does not have any obvious solutions, a problem that requires the combined effort of social scientists, engineers, policymakers, and more, we are supporting our students to become global citizens (Bairaktarova, 2022). By including discussions about engineering in a broader context, we are supporting our students to develop professional skills and competencies that are desired by industry and academia alike (Berdanier, 2022).…”