Engineering soft skills development to avoid hard knocks

Abstract

Engineering and technology sectors have long recognised the importance of soft skills for successful career progression. Research suggests that soft skills are better developed when acquired and practiced than taught. The research describes initial reflections on the potential of discipline-oriented, web-based resource for Personal Development Planning (PDP) to promote and support learner's engagement with personal development and their increased employability awareness. The research further seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the PDP resource in ‘engineering - developing, fostering and practicing’ engagement with PDP processes such as skills articulation, reflection on learning, and action-planning, within students' learning experiences. Outcomes from initial evaluation are suggestive of resource's success in elucidating links between personal development and employability to learners. The future runs of the research, which is a work in progress, would clarify resource's influence on learner's engagement with personal development and ongoing employability.