Social competences and personal ethical development-soft skills or a need for survival?

The lack of social competence has become one of today's major problems in society throughout the world and is somehow a 21st century disease. The paper considers how changes in the world's economical systems coupled with new technical possibilities such as global networking and e-commerce have induced deep changes in social structures becoming more and more visible. The reflection of these changes and the social impacts through new technologies needs to be discussed. Since technologies affect living conditions, we need engineers that are able to meet both requirements-outstanding technical competence and ability for ethical reflection. University education should integrate ethical viewpoints in order to prepare the students for their professional career. This could be done by integrating ethical issues in university education and by teaching of personality development.