Training Freshmen Engineers as Managers to Develop Soft Skills: A Person-Centred Approach

Abstract

This article describes a subject design to train engineer students in soft skills through an experiential and person-centred approach, as is usually developed in companies for managers to incorporate responsible and ethical engineering perspectives. This design is based on an experiential methodology and its impact on students is presented. The subject, called “Personal and Professional Effectiveness”, was designed and developed based on Covey’s classic book “The 7 habits of highly effective people” and introduces ethical and social commitment among other contents. A detailed description of different activities carried out within the module is provided to allow replication. Students’ perception, gathered from their reflexive diaries, and academic satisfaction survey results are presented. Students report that this teaching method leads to a deeper connection with themselves and increased awareness of their strengths and weaknesses. Students seem to have understood the importance of sustainability and how individual behavior impacts in an engineering team. They reflect on how being aware of their own strengths and difficulties helps them integrate different knowledge into their daily lives and how this can improve their behaviors, not only professionally, but also personally.

Reconciling Hard Skills and Soft Skills in a Common Framework: The Generic Skills Component Approach

“…Generally speaking, the criteria for determining whether a skill is soft or hard depend on the context in which the skill is used. Some researchers argued that soft skills are often seen as being more “Person-Centred” whereas hard skills are classified as “Task-Centred”, emphasising the need for individuals to be able to both interact with and help others ( Rodríguez-Jiménez et al 2021 ). As a result, soft skills are typically viewed as more important when it comes to interpersonal aspects of professional life such as communication, problem-solving, customer service, and teamwork, among others.…”

Semi-guided learning tool as framework for STEM students learning: A case study for final year projects

“…Research has shown that self-efficacy beliefs are important mediators of all types of achievement-related behaviors, such as effort and task persistence or self-regulatory strategies, among others (Meece et al, 2006). In this sense, educational programs have the possibility to enhance students' self-efficacy (Cuthbert, 1995;Heikkilä & Lonka, 2006;Van Dinther et al, 2011;Onah et al, 2020;López-Crespo et al, 2021;Rodríguez-Jiménez et al, 2021). Furthermore, findings from recent studies also shed new light on the undervalued and frequently occluded role of positive emotions in the writing process (Sword et al, 2020).…”

Education for Sustainable Development in Higher Education-Introduction to a Special Issue

“…This Special Issue sets out different educational methods and formats for bringing university students closer to the ideals of sustainability in its different environmental, economic and social dimensions. Some papers present experiences in educational activities or program design [1][2][3], teaching-learning sequences [4], learning contexts that facilitate ESD [5][6][7][8] or a person-centered approach to professional soft skills development [9]. Others analyze the sustainability competence status at the study level [10][11][12] and faculty level [13,14], student perception and knowledge of sustainability learning [15][16][17][18][19], or likewise propose strategies at the university level for the integration of sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [20] in degree curricula [21][22][23].…”

“…The design of the subject "Personal and Professional Effectiveness" was based on Covey's classic book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People [24]. This paper, proposed by Rodríguez-Jiménez and colleagues [9], provided a detailed description of the activities carried out during the course and analyzed the students' perceptions. They reflected on how the recognition of students' strengths and difficulties influences the development of an engineering work group for sustainability.…”