Assessment of soft skills for engineering students and professionals

Abstract

Soft skills are increasingly talked and written about for their growing importance both in higher education and the job market. However, it is still difficult to point out the direction to go when there's a need to teach said skills or even assess them in students or professionals. This dissertation aims for an answer to those two questions while studying the engineering profession and its needs. There are five skills analysed for this study, following extensive research on relevance to the practice of engineering: communication, emotional intelligence, leadership, problem-solving and creativity and critical thinking. For each skill, further investigation was held to compile models and theories that can assist the learning process as well as descriptors for its assessment. It is crucial to notice that this study is entirely in line with engineering education in Europe and the work developed by multiple organisations and investigations on the topic.