Preparing and developing skills for better employability for STEM and engineering graduates

Increased demands from industry for specialists in engineering and in general on STEM jobs in Europe and all over the world need a more diverse skills profile comprising both hard skills and core transversal competences like digital skills and soft skills. Preparing engineering and STEM candidates with non-technical skills, including skills such as critical thinking, idea generation and interdisciplinary ways of working, seems particularly important and a necessary task. Regardless of the domain of soft skills in any workplace, education at the colleges and universities is no stranger to this fact. However, despite the growing interest in incorporating soft skills in engineering studies curricula, there is no common agreement in many aspects. For example, it is not clear which soft skills should be selected, how they should be taught, or how they should be assessed. On the other hand, there are also differences depending on the university institution involved or the geographic area. At present, the recent push towards digital transformation that society now requires has increased the number of frameworks and lists of soft skills. Another characteristic of these skills is that they need to be acquired in an active way, which has become a challenge that has given rise to multiple pedagogical approaches. The objective of this paper is to present our investigations to identify the common soft skills that are occupationally required in the job market in Europe and beyond, and academically fostered for engineering graduates.