Abstract:

From the moment the university system became part of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the methodologies and even the concept of teaching have been modified with the aim of students acquiring skills related to a particular program of studies, and that allows a person to act effectively in a job or situation. The University of Almeria (UAL) degrees include three types of skills: generic skills included in Royal Decree RD1393/2007, of 29 October, approved by the Central State Administration; generic skills of the UAL, approved by the University Governing Council on 17 June 2008, which are transversal skills that appear in all degrees; and specific skills of each degree. In this work, the didactic guides of the forty-two subjects of the Mechanical Engineering degree were analysed and the 10 generic skills of the University of Almeria were studied: UAL1, Basic knowledge of the profession; UAL2, Ability to use ICTs; UAL3, Ability to solve problems; UAL4, Ability to communicate orally and in writing in one's own language; UAL5, Ability to criticize and self-criticism; UAL6, Teamwork; UAL7, Knowledge of a second language; UAL8, Ethical commitment; UAL9, Ability to learn to work autonomously; and UAL10, Social skills and global citizenship. After the analysis of the results, the following distribution of skills has been observed: UAL1, 88.10%; UAL2, 14.29%; UAL3, 80.95; UAL4, 23.81%; UAL5, 16.67%; UAL6, 42.86%; UAL7, 4.76%; UAL8, 11.90%; UAL9, 26.19%; and UAL10, 7.14%. That is to say, the UAL1 and UAL3 skills, related to the acquisition of knowledge and the resolution of problems, are very present at the time of elaborating the teaching guides of the subjects of this degree, and, nevertheless, the skills related to the acquisition of a second language, UAL7, and to the social character of the contents, UAL10, are hardly taken into account. On the other hand, it is observed that the subjects of the Basic Training module are the ones with the most skills considered in their teaching guides, while those of the Common Industrial Training and Mechanical Intensification modules are the ones with the least skills.

Keywords:

Skill, Mechanical engineering, University of Almeria.