Exploring Perceptions of Social and Generic Competencies among Engineering Students, Professors, and Practitioners
Publication: Journal of Civil Engineering Education
Volume 150, Issue 4
Abstract
There is a growing concern in academia and industry regarding the key competencies of engineers. Present-day challenges and complexities demand that engineers possess not only specialized technological knowledge but also certain transversal competencies and knowledge of various areas in the social sciences and humanities. In this study, we examined the perceptions that engineering academia and industry have toward some of these nontechnological key competencies. To achieve this, we administered a questionnaire to civil engineering undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, professors, and professionals (). Additionally, we explored the perceived need for different sets of social knowledge areas and generic skills. The reliability and validity of the results were checked using Cronbach’s alpha and item response theory measures, respectively. Subsequently, we used chi-square tests of independence to determine the significance of the associations between responses and several demographic variables like gender, stakeholder group, educational background, and personal interests. Furthermore, factor analysis was used to identify underlying latent variables of perceptions. The findings revealed a significant gap between academia and industry perceptions, a gap that was more evident for social knowledge than for generic skills. Notably, no relevant mismatches were observed from a gender perspective. The study accentuated the imperative of fortifying the interconnections between academia and industry and the need for more research on the integration of social knowledge domains into engineering education.
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Data Availability Statement
Data generated or analyzed during the study are available from the corresponding author by request.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the participation of the respondents in the survey. Irene Josa was supported by the Catalan Government through a grant from Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) (Grant No. 2018 FI-B 00655).
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Journal of Civil Engineering Education
Volume 150 • Issue 4 • October 2024
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© 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Dec 22, 2022
Accepted: Mar 29, 2024
Published online: Jun 26, 2024
Published in print: Oct 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Nov 26, 2024
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