Opportunities for the development of professional skills for undergraduate civil and environmental engineers

Abstract

Employability and skills development are contemporary issues in higher education. For vocationalprofessional disciplines such as engineering, the signature pedagogy directs teaching and learning towards acquiring scientific knowledge. Engineering employers have called for graduates to be more work-ready and to be trained in team-working, communication and other professional skills. These skills can be developed and assessed within curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular settings. We consider how a sample of undergraduate civil engineers (N=58) perceive the contribution of the above activities on the development of six professional skills (Problem-solving; Planning; Leadership; Teamworking; Self-confidence; Resilience). Embedding these skills within curricular activities offers the greatest potential for helping all students improve their employment prospects. Finally, we make suggestions for improving the deployment of professional skills in our four undergraduate programmes, and in higher education institutions in general.

Students’ perceptions of a major engineering curriculum reform

“…Concluding, this study proves that it is possible to make students aware of the importance of professional competencies. Since we are not the only faculty integrating professional competencies into the core of the curriculum [7][8][9][10], this is hopeful information for many curriculum reforms. Improvements are still possible, such as a stronger integration of the professional competencies in the engineering courses and not only in EE.…”