Abstract:

Hard and soft skills can be seen as domain-specific and domain-unspecific skills, but nevertheless extremely complementary. Teaching processes which enable students to acquire those skills - individually and combined, need to assist students in gaining both. For that reason, new scenarios and models of delivering courses in Higher Education Institutions need to change and introduce new concepts of teaching and learning.

Various practise-oriented concepts such as Project-Based Learning (PjBL), Work-Based Learning (WBL), Problem-Based Learning (PBL), can be incorporated into the curricula (course perspective) in a more formal way: aiming to achieve designed learning outcomes demonstrating how theoretical concepts can be translated into practice-related skills. Intuitively, teachers are aware of the sometimes more rigid and administrative constraints of formal education structures, choosing often Blended Intensive Programmes (BIP), as a less formal option of introducing innovative and contemporary concepts which strive to strengthen the competencies of students needed for further professional development in international environments and in shorter cycles.

For exploring how these two approaches meet student’s expectation regarding the proper balance of hard and soft skills, research was conducted among a student population in information and communication technology-related study programme. The methodology used in this research includes qualitative and quantitative analysis and was intended to explore:
a) domain-specific hard skills such as databases design and management skills, programming applications and information systems skills, and others;
b) soft skills such as managerial and leadership skills, network and communication skills, presentation skills, etc.

Another dimension of this research is tackling two perspectives of delivered education modules, namely a traditional course perspective and a BIP perspective, as two distinctive perspectives of consuming the teaching process.

The results show that students with experience in BIPs consider PjBL soft skills slightly more significant than hard skills. Respectively, students without BIP experience emphasize that, although there is a value in PjBL soft skills, based on their strong reliance on the course perspective, hard skills were slightly more important. Qualitative results of the research indicate that student’s expectation regarding the proper balance of hard and soft skills, among a student population in information and communication technology-related study programme revealed the value of teachers determination of encouraging students to collaborate in creating, integrating and applying knowledge through participating in work on a meaningful projects and thus creating new values which can be applicable as a solution for practical problems.

Keywords:

Project-Based Learning, Blended Intensive Programmes, university courses, higher education, hard skills, soft skills.