ABSTRACT:This article distinguishes which generic skills are the key to enable newly graduated engineers, basically computer and telecommunication engineers, to enter the information and communication technology (ICT) sector, satisfying industry demand in Spain. It also demonstrates significant differences between the engineering degrees (at graduate level) and the engineering master degrees (at post-graduate level) related to skills needs. Furthermore, this work establishes the fact that there is a gap between the expectations of the ICT sector and the computer-based engineering curricula and telecommunication engineering curricula the graduated receives, and where this gap appears in relation to generic competences or skills.

A study surveying experts and related literature reveals the mostand least-valued generic professional abilities for engineers in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. The current business environment is increasingly more complex, dynamic, and turbulent in both the macro and micro scales. This is especially evident when we consider key issues such as globalization, politics, technologies, social and economic matters, suppliers, clients, and product and services competition. [1][2][3] This effect is particularly noticeable in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector, where escalation in the number and propensity of changes necessarily generates increased uncertainty and makes predicting market behavior more difficult.Within this new paradigm, we must reconsider the models of competitiveness established to date, especially those that refer to resource and personnel management. Manuel Castells contends that capitalist production has passed from an industrial to an information model. 4 He considers information the new material base of technological activity and social organization, which is manifested in his network society model. Furthermore, the European Union (EU) is clearly moving toward a new productive system, a knowledge-based economy, with the objective of becoming the most competitive society in the world by 2010. 5 Along these lines, Castells claims, Faced with the emerging nations, if Western Europe and the US have a knowledge-based economy which generates competitive advantage, it shouldn't be modified by training engineers or developing electronic technology, since research shows that recently industrialised countries are perfectly able to compete; but rather the issue should be treated like other important social fields like anthropology, psychology, sociology, communication, public health, education, architecture, design or management science. 6In the same article, he concluded by suggesting that our engineers are no better than Chinese engineers-but more expensive, and instead of rediscovering engineering that has been partially replaced locally by computers and robots, or at a distance by Indian and Chinese people, we should build the knowledge-based economy by investing in the social disciplines and linking them to business schools.Although Castells makes some relevant points, we don't agree with such reasoning in its entirety. The ICT sector faces savage competition, where the threat of new competitors (emerging nations) is added to that of the well-established competition (such as the US and Japan There is a lovely Spanish proverb that translates as "the swell and storms flatter the best navigators" (www.refranespopulares.com), echoing the English adage "fortune favors the brave." This leads us to ask (with regard to telecommunication engineers, computer scientists, and designers), which ICT graduates' professional abilities will make them the best navigators? Professional AbilitiesTo flesh out this question, given the confusion and ambiguity that exists...

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The Covid-19 pandemic led Catalan universities to do all teaching and evaluation online from 11 March 2020 until the end of term on 30 July. Conventional universities made the transition to online teaching in just a few days and suddenly virtual platforms become the centre of interaction between lecturers and students. Data that were obtained from the virtual platforms gave extremely valuable information about what was being done in class. This paper analyses data taken from Atenea, the Moodle virtual platform at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), during quarantine. The key indicators and a data analysis design for Moodle have been proposed, which reveal teaching developments at various levels (overall and at the centre and subject level). This is applied to study data from the UPC Moodle and the results are discussed. The methodology can be extrapolated to other universities with Moodle platforms because the UPC is a set of small campuses and centres.

In 2004, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya decided to change one of its critical and strategic information services: the online teaching support platform. An Open Source software, Moodle, was adopted and the previous proprietary software was abandoned. In 2020, the home confinement of the population due to the pandemic caused by COVID-19 has been a stress test for the entire university community, and very specifically by those responsible for providing the support of the online teaching support platform. The increase in activity and the prospect of the generalization of online assessment raised the concerns of possible scalability issues with the quiz functionality during the examination period. The solution applied involved using Moodle’s IMS LTI interoperability features to deploy a high-performance version of the Moodle Quizz Module As A Service (SaaS), to plug-and-play within the university’s LMS without drawing on its internal resources. This solution combined with a systems strategy, private cloud operations, internal communication and teacher training, solved this problem and successfully complete the assessment of the university course in a situation of confinement.

A significant number of universities where engineering is taught, acknowledge the importance of the social and environmental impact of the scientific and technological practice, as well as the ethical problems it presents, and the need to provide their students with courses covering this as a subject. This paper presents 29 years of teaching courses with the subject of social, environmental, and ethical issues to students of Informatics Engineering. The table contents and its evolution over the years will be analyzed, plus the different teaching strategies applied, with emphasis on the collaborative learning methodologies to facilitate critical thinking and debate. During the experience, the course incorporated the subject of History of Informatics which proved to fit in the course. While the subject of Ethics and Sustainability is increasingly being regarded as an important matter to learn by future ICT engineers, the courses covering it remain as optional in the curriculums. This should change.

Engineering education is facing new challenges to effectively provide the appropriate skills to future engineering professionals according to market demands. This study proposes a model based on active learning methods, which is expected to facilitate the acquisition of the professional skills most highly valued in the information and communications technology (ICT) market. The theoretical foundations of the study are based on the specific literature on active learning methodologies. The Delphi method is used to establish the fit between learning methods and generic skills required by the ICT sector. An innovative proposition is therefore\ud presented that groups the required skills in relation to the teaching\ud method that best develops them. The qualitative research suggests that\ud a combination of project-based learning and the learning contract is\ud sufficient to ensure a satisfactory skills level for this profile of engineers.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version