Abstract:

Engineers are trained to solve problems in the real world and provide solutions which are based on technical knowledge. Electrical engineering (EE) is a bachelor's degree (either B.Sc. or B.E) which requires 3-4 years of academic education. EE students learn math, physics, coding and engineering oriented courses which provide them with the technical skills needed to solve complex problems in the field of devices, systems and models related to electrical and electronic principles and theories. After learning these skills, most of the graduates seek job opportunities that relate to developing, supporting, servicing, or maintaining complex electronic or electric based systems.

It is known that the success of these young graduates as professionals does not solely depend on their academic scores or technical knowledge. Their success mainly depends on their soft skills, skills such as: empathy, team-work, listening- or communications-skills. These skills, sometime termed “power skills” are the ones that mostly correlate with the success of an engineer as a problem solver. However, such skills require training and development, similarly to the technical or hard skills listed above.

The current curriculum of EE programs in higher-education institutions often lacks dedicated training in soft skills, and assumes such skills will be picked up later in life, during professional training. As such, higher education does not serve its purpose in training future EE students to become successful problem solvers. At our institution, we have developed a dedicated, mandatory course for undergraduate EE students that is focused on soft-skills development. In this course the students experience team-work, learn about their personal communication styles, learn how to present their work and how to provide valuable peer-review to their peers. In addition, the course is blended, integrating individual, self-paced learning with workshops and presentations. Students who started a new job after participating in this course indicated that it helped them with learning new fields and adapting to new teams. We believe that this training will result in a successful career path and improve their problem-solving capabilities.

Keywords:

Electrical engineering, hard skills, soft skills.