Correo Electrónico
DNINFOA - SIA
Bibliotecas
Convocatorias
Identidad U.N.
Published
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.
References
Allen, K., Reed-Rhoads, T., Terry, R. A., Murphy, T. J., and Stone, A. D. (2008). Coefficient alpha: An engineer's interpretation of test reliability. Journal of Engineering Education. 97(1), 87-94. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2008.tb00956.x
Andrews, J., & Higson, H. (2008). Graduate employability,‘soft skills’ versus ‘hard’business knowledge: A European study. Higher education in Europe, 33(4), 411-422. https://doi.org/10.1080/03797720802522627
Aponte, C., Agi, K., and Jordan, R. (2017). International Profile of a Global Engineer. In 2017 7th World Engineering Education Forum (WEEF) (pp. 470-477). Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/WEEF.2017.8467050
Balcar, J. (2014). Soft skills and their wage returns: Overview of empirical literature. Review of Economic Perspectives, 14(1), 3-15. https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2014-0001
Ballesteros-Sánchez, L. Ortiz-Marcos, I. Rodríguez-Rivero, R., and Juan-Ruiz, J. (2017). Project management training: an integrative approach for strengthening the soft skills of engineering students. International Journal of Engineering Education, 33(6a), 1912-1926. http://oa.upm.es/49810/1/INVE_MEM_2017_263865.pdf
Bancino, R. and Zevalkink, C. (2007). Soft skills: The new curriculum for hard-core technical professionals. Techniques: Connecting Education and Careers (J1), 82(5), 20-22. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ764824.pdf
Barrera, M. C., Duarte, O. G., Sarmiento, C., and Soto, R. A. (2015). A quantitative definition of engineering professional profiles. Ingeniería e Investigación, 35(2), 89-95. https://doi.org/10.15446/ing.investig.v35n2.46318
Beckton, J. (2009). Educational development units: The challenge of quality enhancement in a changing environment. In Bell, L., Stevenson, H., and Neary, M. (Eds) The future of higher education: Policy, pedagogy and the student experience (pp. 57-68) New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. https://core.ac.uk/reader/56030
Borrego, M. and Bernhard, J. (2011). The emergence of engineering education research as an internationally connected field of inquiry. Journal of Engineering Education, 100(1), 14-47. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2011.tb00003.x
Brockmann, M., Clarke, L., Méhaut, P., and Winch, C. (2008). Competence-based vocational education and training (VET): the cases of England and France in a European perspective. Vocations and Learning, 1(3), 227-244. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-008-9013-2
Brunhaver, S. R., Korte, R. F., Barley, S. R., and Sheppard, S. D. (2017). Bridging the gaps between engineering education and practice. In Freeman, R. B. and Salzman, H. (Eds.) US engineering in a global economy (pp. 129-163). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226468471.003.0005
Caggiano, V., Schleutker, K., Petrone, L., and González-Bernal, J. (2020). Towards Identifying the Soft Skills Needed in Curricula: Finnish and Italian Students’ Self-Evaluations Indicate Differences between Groups. Sustainability, 12(10), 4031. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104031
Carvalho, G. D. G., Corrêa, R. O., Carvalho, H. G., Vieira, A. M. D. P., Stankowitz, R. F., and Kolotelo, J. L. G. (2018). Competencies and Performance of Engineering Professors: Evidence from a Brazilian Public University. Ingeniería e Investigación, 38(3), 33-41. https://doi.org/10.15446/ing.investig.v38n3.70998
Chanduví, G., Martín, D. A., and De los Ríos, I. (2013). Modelos internacionales de competencias profesionales. DYNA: ingeniería e industria, 88, 266-270. https://doi.org/10.6036/5269
Elias, P. and Purcell, K. (2004). Is Mass Higher Education Working? Evidence from the Labour Market Experiences of Recent Graduates. National Institute Economic Review, 190(1), 60-74. https://doi.org/10.1177/002795010419000107
Elsen, P., Jaginowski, J., and Kleinert, R.A. (2005). 2005 Skill gap report. http://www.doleta.gov/wired/files/us_mfg_talent_management.pdf
Evans, K. (2006). The rainbow concept of lifelong learning. British Educational Research Journal, 32(3). 527-534. http://doi.org/10.1080/01411920600670673
Fabregá, M. B., Alarcon, J. P. A., and Galiana, J. (2016). Competencias emprendedoras y su relación con el perfil académico: ¿tienen los estudiantes de ingeniería más competencias emprendedoras que los que provienen de las ciencias sociales? DYNA, 91(2), 134-135. https://doi.org/10.6036/7774
Fallows, S. and Steven, C. (2000). Building employability skills into the higher education curriculum: a university‐wide initiative. Education and Training, 42 (2), 75-83. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400910010331620
Fernández-Sanz, L., Villalba, M. T., Medina, J. A., and Misra, S. (2017). A study on the key soft skills for successful participation of students in multinational engineering education. International Journal of Engineering Education, 33(6B), 2061-2070.
Fossati, L., Ciancaleoni, M. (Ed.) (2013). Business-focused Inventory of Personality (BIP) (Edizione italiana). Florence, Italy: Hogrefe.
Fournier, S. M. and Ineson, E. M. (2014). Age, gender and work experience as predictors of success. Education and Training, 56(1), 59-77. https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-10-2012-0093
Gemar, G., Negrón-González, A. M., Lozano-Piedrahita, C. J., Guzmán-Parra, V. F., and Rosado, N. (2019). Procedure for the continuous improvement of human resource management. Ingeniería e Investigación, 39(1), 53-62. https://doi.org/10.15446/ing.investig.v39n1.72402
Henkel, T. G., Marion Jr, J. W., and Bourdeau, D. T. (2019). Project Manager Leadership Behavior: Task-Oriented Versus Relationship-Oriented. Journal of Leadership Education, 18(2), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.12806/V18/I2/R8
Hinchliffe, G.W. and Jolly, A. (2011). Graduate identity and employability [electronic version]. British Educational Research Journal, 37(4), 563-584. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01411926.2010.482200
IBM Corp. (2015). IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 23.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.
Itani, M. and Srour, I. (2016). Engineering students’ perceptions of soft skills, industry expectations and career aspirations. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 142(1), 04015005. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)EI.1943-5541.0000247
Joseph, D., Ang, S., Chang, R. H., and Slaughter, S. A. (2010). Practical intelligence in IT: assessing soft skills of IT professionals. Communications of the ACM, 53(2), 149-154. https://doi.org/10.1145/1646353.1646391
King, C. J. (2012). Restructuring Engineering Education. Journal of Engineering Education, 101(1), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2012.tb00038.x
King, Z. (2003). New or Traditional Careers? A Study of UK Graduates’ Preferences. Human Resource Management Journal, 13(1), 5-26. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2003.tb00081.x
Kuhl, J. and Beckmann, J. (1994). Volition and Personality: Action Versus State Orientation. Seattle, Göttingen, Bern: Hogrefe & Huber Publisher.
Leroux, J. A. and Lafleur, S. (2006). Employability skills: the demands of the workplace. The Vocational Aspect of Education, 47(2), 189-196. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0305787950470207
Lunev, A., Petrova, I., and Zaripova, V. (2013). Competency-based models of learning for engineers: a comparison. European Journal of Engineering Education, 38(5), 543-555. https://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2013.824410
Matturro, G., Raschetti, F., and Fontán, C. (2019). A Systematic Mapping Study on Soft Skills in Software Engineering. Journal of Universal Computer Science, 25(1), 16-41.
McIntosh, S. (2008). Education and employment in OECD countries. Paris: United Nations Educational. Scientific and Cultural Organization.
McQuick, R.W. and Lindsay, C. (2005). The concept of employability. Journal of Urban Study, 42(2), 197-219. https://doi.org/10.1080/0042098042000316100
McCrae, R. R., and Costa Jr, P. T. (1985). Comparison of EPI and psychoticism scales with measures of the five-factor model of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 6(5), 587-597. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(85)90008-X
McCrae, R. R., and Costa, P. T. (1987). Validation of the five-factor model of personality across instruments and observers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(1), 81-90. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.52.1.81
Mocanu, C., Zamfir, A. M., and Pirciog, S. (2014). Matching curricula with labour market needs for higher education: state of art, obstacles and facilitating factors. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 149, 602-606. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.08.234
Olivares-Rodríguez, C., Guenaga, M., and Garaizar, P. (2017). Automatic assessment of creativity in heuristic problem-solving based on query diversity. Dyna (Spain), 92(4), 449-455. https://doi.org/10.6036/8243
Pineteh, E. A. (2012). Using virtual interactions to enhance the teaching of communication skills to information technology students. British Journal of Educational Technology, 43(1), 85–96. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01193
Possa, G. (2010). Europe’s Universities Response to Europe’s Challenges. Higher Education in Europe, 31(4), 355-357. https://doi.org/10.1080/03797720701302907
Raybould, J. and Sheedy, V. (2005). Are graduates equipped with the right skills in the employability stakes? Industrial and Commercial Training, 37(5), 259-263. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197850510609694
Redoli, J., Mompó, R., De la Mata, D., and Doctor, M. (2013). DLP: A tool to develop technical and soft skills in engineering. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 21(S1), E51-E61. https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.20572
Redomero, T., Caggiano, V., Poza-Lujan. J. L., and Piccione, V. A. (2019). Fostering and assessing soft skills of engineering students. The International journal of engineering education, 35(6), 1656-1666.
Robles, M. M. (2012). Executive perceptions of the top 10 soft skills needed in today’s workplace. Business Communication Quarterly, 75(4), 453-465. https://doi.org/10.1177/1080569912460400
Schleutker, K. J., Caggiano, V., Coluzzi, F., and Poza-Lujan. J. L. (2019). Soft Skills and European Labour Market: Interviews with Finnish and Italian Managers. Journal of Educational. Cultural and Psychological Studies (ECPS Journal), 19, 123-144. https://doi.org/10.7358/ecps-2019-019-schl
Sleezer, C.M., Gularte, M.A., Waldner, L., and Cook, J. (2004). ‘Business and Higher Education Partner to Develop a High-skilled Workforce: A Case-Study. Performance Improvement Quarterly 17(2), 65–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1937-8327.2004.tb00308.x
Shuman, L. J., Besterfield-Sacre, M., and McGourty, J. (2005). The ABET “Professional Skills” — Can They Be Taught? Can They Be Assessed? Journal of Engineering Education, 94, 41–55. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2005.tb00828.x
Stevenson, H. and Bell, L. (2009). Introduction – universities in transition: themes in higher education policy. In Bell, L., Stevenson, H., and Neary, M. (Eds). The future of higher education. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. (pp. 1-16).
Teichler, U. (2003). The future of higher education and the future of higher education research. Tertiary Education & Management, 9(3), 171-185. https://doi.org/10.1080/13583883.2003.9967102
Tomić, B., Jovanović, J., Milikić, N., Devedžić, V., Dimitrijević, S., Đurić, D., and Ševarac, Z. (2019). Grading students' programming and soft skills with open badges: A case study. British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(2), 518-530. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12564
Tulgan, B. (2015). Bridging the soft skills gap: How to teach the missing basics to todays young talent. John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119171409
Wang, M. T. and Degol, J. L. (2017). Gender gap in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM): Current knowledge, implications for practice, policy and future directions. Educational psychology review, 29(1), 119-140. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-015-9355-x
Weil, S. (1999). Re‐creating universities for ‘beyond the stable state’: from ‘Dearingesque’ systematic control to post‐Dearing systemic learning and inquiry. Systems Research and Behavioral Science: The Official Journal of the International Federation for Systems Research, 16(2), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1743(199903/04)16:2<171::AID-SRES284>3.0.CO;2-A
How to Cite
APA
ACM
ACS
ABNT
Chicago
Harvard
IEEE
MLA
Turabian
Vancouver
Download Citation
CrossRef Cited-by
1. Farhad Sadik Mohammed, Fezile Ozdamli. (2024). A Systematic Literature Review of Soft Skills in Information Technology Education. Behavioral Sciences, 14(10), p.894. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14100894.
2. Pablo Fernández-Arias, Álvaro Antón-Sancho, Amelia Barrientos-Fernández, Diego Vergara-Rodríguez. (2023). Soft Skills of Latin American Engineering Professors: Gender Gap. IEEE Transactions on Education, 66(3), p.211. https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.2022.3215114.
3. Fouzia Munir. (2025). Humanities Education for Engineering Students: Enhancing Soft Skills Development. Societies, 15(1), p.12. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc15010012.
4. Vanessa Maribel Choque-Soto, Victor Dario Sosa-Jauregui. (2024). Assessing Soft Skills Development in Informatics Students Through Project-Based Learning and Agile Frameworks. 2024 International Symposium on Accreditation of Engineering and Computing Education (ICACIT). , p.1. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICACIT62963.2024.10788614.
5. Valeria Caggiano, Antonio Ragusa, Ema Di Petrillo. (2024). People and Organizations. Research Series on Responsible Enterprise Ecosystems. , p.49. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-58472-5_3.
6. Ana Pinto, Soraia Oliveira, Micael Sousa, Carla Carvalho. (2025). Transferable Skills: Modding Magic Maze Into a Serious Game for Engineering Education Training. 2025 6th International Conference of the Portuguese Society for Engineering Education (CISPEE). , p.1. https://doi.org/10.1109/CISPEE64787.2025.11124145.
7. Claudio Aránguiz-Bravo, Beatriz Arteaga-Ortiz. (2024). Analysis of the integration of competencies in a Humanization Curricular Line: Case study on the curriculum of a technical career in health. Salud, Ciencia y Tecnología, 4 https://doi.org/10.56294/saludcyt2024.985.
8. Anna M. Markus, Lada N. Ovinova, Elena G. Shraiber, Anna S. Skorobogatova. (2022). Information Technologies as a Tool for Bachelor’s Engineering Teamwork Skills Development. 2022 International Conference on Quality Management, Transport and Information Security, Information Technologies (IT&QM&IS). , p.372. https://doi.org/10.1109/ITQMIS56172.2022.9976751.
9. Lin Xu, Jingxiao Zhang, Yin Yuan, Junwei Zheng, Simon P. Philbin, Brian H. W. Guo, Ruoyu Jin, Huihua Chen. (2022). Testing the Effects of the Digital Linguistic Landscape on Engineering Education for Smart Construction. Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, 2022, p.1. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/4077516.
10. Ana Pinto, Soraia Oliveira, Carla Carvalho. (2023). Do transferable skills matter for engineering students?. 2023 5th International Conference of the Portuguese Society for Engineering Education (CISPEE). , p.1. https://doi.org/10.1109/CISPEE58593.2023.10227618.
11. Ana Pinto, Soraia Oliveira, Carla Carvalho. (2025). Transferable Skills in Engineering Curricula: A Case Study at a Portuguese University. 2025 6th International Conference of the Portuguese Society for Engineering Education (CISPEE). , p.1. https://doi.org/10.1109/CISPEE64787.2025.11123996.
12. Shana Shaw, L. Starr, laila badran. (2025). Literature Review of Using AI Tools to Enhance Engineering Students’ Proficiency of Professional Skills. 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--56936.
13. Julio Éfrain Postigo Zumarán, Dennis Arias-Chávez, Teresa Ramos-Quispe. (2021). Perception of virtual classroom interaction and level of soft skills in college students. Educ. Form., 6(3), p.e5297. https://doi.org/10.25053/redufor.v6i3.5297.
14. Pedro Sanz-Angulo, Jesús Galindo-Melero, Santiago De-Diego-Poncela, Óscar Martín. (2025). Promoting soft skills in higher engineering education: Assessment of the impact of a teaching methodology based on flipped learning, cooperative work and gamification. Education and Information Technologies, 30(10), p.13463. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-025-13322-0.
15. Chien Ching Lee, Ryan Fraser Kirwan. (2025). Inculcating Soft Skills in Requirements Elicitation: A Dynamic Role-Play Approach. TENCON 2025 - 2025 IEEE Region 10 Conference (TENCON). , p.533. https://doi.org/10.1109/TENCON66050.2025.11375321.
Dimensions
PlumX
Article abstract page views
Downloads
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Valeria Caggiano, Teresa Redomero-Echeverría, Jose-Luis Poza-Lujan, Andrea Bellezza
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The authors or holders of the copyright for each article hereby confer exclusive, limited and free authorization on the Universidad Nacional de Colombia's journal Ingeniería e Investigación concerning the aforementioned article which, once it has been evaluated and approved, will be submitted for publication, in line with the following items:
1. The version which has been corrected according to the evaluators' suggestions will be remitted and it will be made clear whether the aforementioned article is an unedited document regarding which the rights to be authorized are held and total responsibility will be assumed by the authors for the content of the work being submitted to Ingeniería e Investigación, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and third-parties;
2. The authorization conferred on the journal will come into force from the date on which it is included in the respective volume and issue of Ingeniería e Investigación in the Open Journal Systems and on the journal's main page (https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/ingeinv), as well as in different databases and indices in which the publication is indexed;
3. The authors authorize the Universidad Nacional de Colombia's journal Ingeniería e Investigación to publish the document in whatever required format (printed, digital, electronic or whatsoever known or yet to be discovered form) and authorize Ingeniería e Investigación to include the work in any indices and/or search engines deemed necessary for promoting its diffusion;
4. The authors accept that such authorization is given free of charge and they, therefore, waive any right to receive remuneration from the publication, distribution, public communication and any use whatsoever referred to in the terms of this authorization.
