Engineering Student Perceptions of Their Generic Skills Competency: An Analysis of Differences Amongst Demographics

Abstract

Assessment and accreditation are an important aspect in maintaining the integrity of engineering programs within higher education. Stakeholders of programs include students, faculty, and employers. Each stakeholder can provide their own perspective as to the assessment of the various skills that engineering programs boast to produce in their graduates. In particular, students strive to develop skills needed to be successful upon graduation within industry. The skills required to be assessed by ABET, one of the largest international accrediting organizations, are considered to be skills that can cross many disciplines and not necessarily isolated for one particular field. Bennet [1] refers to these skills as generic skills. Chan, Zhao, and Luk [2] indicates that these skills include academic and problem-solving skills, interpersonal skills, community and citizenship knowledge, leadership skills, professional effectiveness, information and communication literacy, critical thinking, and self-management skills. This study explored undergraduate engineering students' perceptions of their generic skills competency as it relates to individual demographics. Utilizing the Generic Skills Perception Questionnaire, 158 engineering students at a research university located in the Midwest responded to the survey providing feedback on their capabilities in the different generic skills. The survey found that women indicated higher levels of perceived competency in several of the generic soft skills than men. Additionally, the minority racial and ethnic students perceived themselves as more competent than their white peers for several of the generic skills, most of which are often considered to be soft skills. These findings have implications on research and practice in the engineering education of minorities in order to grow and build a stronger more diverse engineering workforce.