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Soft Skills in Engineers, a Relevant Field of Research: Exploring and Assessing Skills in Italian Engineering Students
Habilidades transversales en ingeniería, un ámbito de investigación relevante: Explorando y evaluando habilidades en estudiantes de ingeniería italianos
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15446/ing.investig.v40n2.83717Keywords:
soft skills, engineer, BIP, curriculum, university (en)habilidades transversales, ingeniería, BIP, currículum, universidad (es)
Soft skills are important for any career and are necessary to access and face the labor market. This research focuses on soft skills by exploring engineer profiles. It also determines how soft skills are developed through the study of a representative sample of 314 undergraduate engineering students from 15 different Italian universities. The instrument used is a questionnaire that investigates soft skills and is based on the Business-focused Inventory of Personality (BIP). Answers are grouped into four areas: intrapersonal, interpersonal, activity development, and impression management. Results show that these engineers have more self-confidence than the reference sample; they demonstrated a great commitment in setting job goals and pursuing projects, a good emotional adaptation to social situations, and enough attitudes in terms of problem solving and openness to change. Perception on the ability to work under pressure is in the average, and they seem ready to take on challenging tasks. The score shows that engineers from the sample are able to express positive and negative ideas and feelings in balance with the reference average, but sometimes they have difficulties in establishing personal relationships. Therefore, they are unable to understand the moods of those who around them and may also have difficulty in understanding their expectations. This results in some difficulties in teamwork. The general result underlines the opportunity of empowerment programs regarding soft skills.
Las habilidades transversales son importantes para cualquier carrera y son necesarias para acceder y afrontar el mercado laboral. Esta investigación se enfoca en el tema de las habilidades transversales explorando los perfiles de los ingenieros. También determina cómo se desarrollan las habilidades sociales a través del estudio de una muestra representativa de 314 estudiantes de ingeniería de 15 universidades italianas diferentes. El instrumento utilizado es un cuestionario que investiga las habilidades interpersonales basado en el Business-focused Inventory of Personality (BIP). Las respuestas se agrupan en cuatro áreas: intrapersonal, interpersonal, desarrollo de la actividad y gestión de la impresión. Los resultados muestran que estos ingenieros tienen más confianza en sí mismos que la muestra de referencia; demostraron un gran compromiso en establecer metas laborales y seguir proyectos, una buena adaptación emocional a las situaciones sociales y actitudes suficientes en términos de solución de problemas y apertura al cambio. La percepción sobre la capacidad de trabajar bajo presión se encuentra en el promedio, y ellos parecen dispuestos a asumir tareas desafiantes. El puntaje muestra que los ingenieros de la muestra son capaces de expresar ideas y sentimientos positivos y negativos en equilibrio con el promedio de referencia, pero a veces tienen dificultades para establecer relaciones personales. Como resultado, no pueden comprender los estados de ánimo de quienes los rodean y pueden tener dificultades para comprender sus expectativas. Esto resulta en algunas dificultades para el trabajo en equipo. El resultado general subraya la oportunidad de un programa de empoderamiento en habilidades transversales.
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Copyright (c) 2020 Valeria Caggiano, Teresa Redomero-Echeverría, Jose-Luis Poza-Lujan, Andrea Bellezza
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