The importance of soft skills in the university academic curriculum: The perceptions of the students in the new society of knowledge

Abstract

This study focuses on the notion of competence in a perspective of structural change. It addresses the academic curriculum and the soft skills essential for the holder of a Bachelor's Degree to adapt to the labour market and endow the citizen with instruments deemed necessary for the integration of the person in the different dimensions of life. Evidence unfolds a great deal of sensitivity on the part of students regarding soft skills. Nonetheless, there are substantial differences among courses and between genders. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey, which was applied to our bachelor students between October 2013 and January 2014. We resorted to the use of the analysis of the main components and we used the VARIMAX method for determining the variance, which is analysed by means of the ANOVA model. The study underpins the importance of autonomy and social and emotional skills in the student's global university education and highlights the sensitivity of the students to transversal competences -soft skills-, as required by the current labour market.

The Importance of Soft Skills for the Engineering

“…According to SBR, the most frequently encountered soft skills are those of the outer circle of the figure that were, as proposed in this research, systematized into the six categories described in the results of this study and ordered in the inner circle. A successful Engineer can bridge soft and technical skills (Pereira & Costa, 2017). All the presented studies converge to the concept of an Engineering education which not only requires the students to understand traditional Engineering fundamentals such as Mechanics, Dynamics, Mathematics and Technology, but also to develop the so-called situational skills.…”

“…The lack of knowledge and organization on studies related to the importance of soft skills for STEM professionals is linked to the fact that these skills are usually taken for granted. It also reflects the low emphasis on the soft skills in the STEM education and the consequent egress panorama (Ríos Carmenado, López, & García, 2015;Veiga, 2017;Pereira & Costa, 2017).…”

Fortalezas y debilidades de un programa para el desarrollo de competencias genéricas

“…Según el International Board of Standard for Training, Perfomance and Instruction este modelo educativo se focaliza en el rendimiento de los resultados del aprendizaje (IBSTPI, 2019). En Europa, el concepto de competencia cobra fuerza al amparo del Proceso de Bolonia, concebido como un proceso destinado a establecer un espacio europeo de educación superior que en lo esencial facilite la movilidad de los trabajadores por la vía del reconocimiento de titulaciones, el establecimiento de equivalencias y sistemas de transferencias entre distintas universidades (Pereira y Costa, 2017).…”

The Evaluation of Learning Assessment in Higher Education: from the perception of students to the ideal evaluation

“…Overall, the Bologna Declaration has been implemented in almost all European universities for more than fifteen years. Its implementation has led to structural curriculum adjustments in order to facilitate and nurture convergence of the courses to a greater academic and professional acceptance (Pereira and Costa, 2017a). As a result, higher education has undergone important metamorphoses, either in terms of the curriculum of the courses, of the academic curricula and in terms of various cross-training related aspects, particularly evaluation methodologies.…”