Hard and Soft Skills in Preparing GIS Professionals: Comparing Perceptions of Employers and Educators

Abstract

Organizations that hire GIS professionals look for entry-level employees with specialized technical skills but also other competencies such as effective communication and a capacity to think critically and creatively. Indeed, the success of GIS projects and initiatives often depends on individuals who possess a combination of specialized GIS skills and more general competencies that influence their ability to collaborate and manage resources. This article presents findings from a survey of GIS employers and educators concerning the importance of hard and soft skills among entry-level GIS professionals. A key finding is the high level of consistency in ratings assigned by employers and educators concerning hard skills such as data editing and GIS analysis and soft skills including problem solving and adaptability. However, the groups were less similar in ratings assigned to data capture skills, project management, and written/verbal skills. GIS qualifications were also compared, revealing a greater emphasis on internships among educators and higher ratings assigned to academic GIS certificates among employers.

GIS&T pedagogies and instructional challenges in higher education: A survey of educators

“…The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework, which was formulated by Shulman (), advanced by Mishra and Koehler (), and most recently applied to GIS by Rickles, Ellul, and Haklay (), conceptualizes knowledge areas for instructors as falling within three broad categories: (1) content (e.g., subject matter expertise; often supported by structured resources like the GIS&T BoK); (2) technology (e.g., understanding and utilizing technologies and digital resources; commonly focused on the use of GIS in the classroom via a laboratory component); and (3) pedagogy (e.g., comprehension of teaching and learning processes and specific approaches/methods such as experiential learning, etc.). Regarding the latter, the need for improved pedagogical approaches in teaching GIS&T has been highlighted by recent surveys of employers suggesting that new geospatial professionals are often poorly prepared to take on real‐world problems (Solem, Cheung, & Schlemper, ; Sinton, ; Wikle & Fagin, ; Mathews & Wikle, ).…”

Assessment of Geographic Information System (GIS) Skills Employed by Graduates from Three Forestry Programs in the United States

“…It is therefore generally assumed today that bachelor's degree graduates of university-level forestry programs have completed a course involving the use of GIS, since many employers expect recent graduates to have experience or knowledge of the technology. However, as computer hardware and software change, responsibilities and expectations of professionals using GIS may also change [3].…”

“…The content of these questions relate to hard (technical) skills, as opposed to soft (e.g., communication, collaboration) skills that may also be required of professionals using GIS [3].…”

Using open‐ended geographic information system assessments to allow students to construct relevant geographies given the internationalisation of tertiary education in New Zealand

“…). But as both technical skills and scientific analysis are considered important by GIS employers and educators (Wikle & Fagin ), core GIS competencies to be taught should include both technical knowledge and skills and the ability to think scientifically about geographical issues (Schulze et al . ).…”

“…Developing GIS courses can be challenging as there are a variety of approaches to GIS education that balance a duality of teaching about GIS or with GIS (Sui 1995), which equates to perceptions of GIS as either a tool or a science (Wright et al 1997). But as both technical skills and scientific analysis are considered important by GIS employers and edu-cators (Wikle & Fagin 2015), core GIS competencies to be taught should include both technical knowledge and skills and the ability to think scientifically about geographical issues (Schulze et al 2013). While there is clear evidence of the most important topics to teach about GIS as a tool (Wikle & Fagin 2014), how best to teach GIS as part of geographical science is a more difficult for an instructor to determine.…”