Work integrated learning competencies: Industrial supervisors’ perspectives

Abstract

Research on student-learning outcomes indicates that university graduates do not possess relevant skills required by the industry such as leadership, emotional intelligence, problem solving, communication, decision-making skills and the ability to function in a multicultural environment. Currently, engineering graduates are expected to perform within a diverse working environment, hence the need to possess appropriate professional competencies and attributes. This paper seeks to identify strengths and potential shortfalls of work integrated learning (WIL) for students placed in the engineering sector. It presents findings from a study of workplace supervisors of chemical engineering students at one university of technology on the coastal seaboard. Supervisors from a variety of chemical industries completed a WIL students' competency assessment, which measures 23 work-related competencies using a 4-point Likert scale. The competencies were organised under two broad themes of cognitive and behavioural skills. The two themes were further broken down into five sub-themes, namely ability, performance, judgement, attitude and suitability. This defines the common characteristics of superior performers within the workplace. The results show that most students meet the standard expectation on the cognitive or 'hard' skills but seem to lack the behavioural or 'soft' skills. There were statistically significant differences between cognitive and behavioural skills. The findings from this study suggest that cooperative education programmes need to do more in developing the students' soft skills before they go out for WIL placement to ensure effectiveness and broad-based technical competence.

Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Demographic Characteristics on Psychological Capital among Chemical Engineering Students

“…76 In addition, during industrial training or workbased learning, engineering interns should be given tasks to deal with challenges such as coping with several duties concurrently, meeting deadlines, and working independently without close supervision. 3 Next, since the present study has shown that EI is a significant predictor of PsyCap, engineering schools should incorporate EI in future interventions on PsyCap. Past activities to develop EI usually consist of a didactic introduction to recognize and understand EI, followed by workshops, group discussions, role-play, workbook exercises, and homework assignments.…”

“…Likewise, engineering educators may use capstone projects to simulate challenges faced by engineers . In addition, during industrial training or work-based learning, engineering interns should be given tasks to deal with challenges such as coping with several duties concurrently, meeting deadlines, and working independently without close supervision …”

“…Emerging challenges in this era have redefined the concept of well-trained chemical engineers to cope with various types of challenges . To become competent engineers in a stressful and demanding working environment, it is no longer sufficient for students to be equipped with the technical knowledge and skills of future engineers; current engineering education should also develop the noncognitive abilities of future chemical engineers. , In contrast to cognitive abilitiesintelligencenoncognitive abilities refer to the patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior that enable workers to persist in their tasks or to adapt to the working environment. , Discouragingly, psychological capital (PsyCap) is a noncognitive ability that is lacking among current engineering students …”

Pondering Deeper onto Threshold Concepts in Engineering: A Case of Mathematical Modelling

“…Also, in international context, the literature that is STEM focused concur that lecturers need to teach learners they have (from high school), not only those they wish wished for [13]. Lately there has been more emphasis on focusing on employability of students, where graduate attributes are deemed as a necessary outcome in the learning cycle [14].…”

Work-integrated Learning Competencies: A Case Study in a Food Engineering Practice School Program

“…Other competencies include an ability to engage in critical, analytical, and creative thinking as well as problem solving and interpersonal and communication skills (Leong & Kavanagh, 2013). Makhathini (2016) found that while students in a chemical engineering WiL were able to demonstrate cognitive skills, they lacked behavioral skills. The authors concluded that, for students to be effective and have the technical competence in their WiL placements, they need development of their soft skills.…”