More than technical experts: Engineering professionals’ perspectives on the role of soft skills in their practice

Abstract

In the 21st century, with the exponential rise in global population and a greater demand for environmental resources, the focus of engineering is on integrated solutions within a multifarious context. To successfully navigate today’s multidisciplinary and multicultural environment, engineers require soft skills in addition to their technical or hard skills: these include leadership, interpersonal, communication and problem-solving skills. They support engineering professionals in meeting the challenges of working in multidisciplinary teams which make decisions that will help shape define the future. This study explores the perspectives of engineering professionals working in different engineering disciplines to understand the role soft skills play in their professions. It finds that technical competence is not considered enough; to succeed in the complex world of engineering, employers look for graduates who can enhance their technical expertise with complementary soft skills. Engineers have to work alongside various stakeholders to develop technologies for the benefit of humankind. Most of the content in engineering education institutions focuses on technical aspects, and it is imperative to highlight and implement soft skills training.

Keywords

Engineering education engineering practice engineering professionals interpersonal skills soft skills

The term ‘engineering’ encompasses numerous fields and involves a variety of skills. Engineers are scientists, innovators, designers, developers and critical thinkers. They seek to improve the quality of life, the capability and the safety of human beings around the world (Engineers Australia, 2020). Engineering has an impact on almost every other profession: engineers are responsible for designing and building infrastructure, including roads, bridges, buildings, communications systems, public utilities, health and educational facilities, as well as the technologies used in these systems (Savant, 2014).

Engineering practice is a complex and careful integration of specialised knowledge and problem-solving processes towards a meaningful end. As Sheppard et al. (2006: 435–436) note:

It is important to note that the integration of process and knowledge happens within the mind of a single engineer and between engineers. Very little engineering work is solitary, and it is increasingly being recognized as a social process.

From these definitions, we can understand that engineering is a multifaceted profession requiring engineers to have multiple competencies. In addition to scientific or technical proficiency, engineers should also have the knowledge and ability to judiciously make use of materials and resources in the service of humanity. They are required to do this while discussing, planning, communicating and collaborating with their colleagues as well as with the community members they are serving.

21st Century challenges

21st century engineering challenges include, among others, the provision of clean water, making solar energy economical, securing cyberspace, preventing nuclear terror, restoring and improving urban infrastructure, creating better medicines and advancing personalised learning (National Academy of Engineering, 2008). In addition, engineers have to address complicated problems related to ‘refugees, displaced populations, and the large-scale movement of populations worldwide resulting from political conflict, famine, shortages of land, and natural hazards’ (Amadei, 2004: 26). Engineers have to work alongside humanitarian organisations to provide relief work.

Engineering businesses realise the importance of having available a pool of potential employees with the understanding, attitudes and abilities necessary to function in a rapidly changing and diverse business environment. They look for a strong knowledge of disciplinary fundamentals and the ability to work effectively in a dynamic and diverse environment. To function efficiently, engineers require more than technical skills and knowledge, as indicated by Sheppard et al. (2006: 430): ‘the professional education of engineers demands the acquisition of a body of specialized knowledge, problem-solving skills, and good judgement for the service of society’. This view is shared by May and Strong (2006: 207), who stress that ‘engineers need to develop soft skills to add value to their performance’.

The engineers of the 21st century, then, need the necessary skills, knowledge and values to fulfil the hugely demanding roles of the modern workplace. They need technical competence combined with high-quality manufacturing and development knowledge, and the ability to envisage, design and manage complex engineering systems. They must also have an understanding of how a business organisation functions and must be able to innovate and create within the realm of sustainable development. They must be ready to live, interact, converse and cooperate as global citizens with a strong sense of social responsibility and ethics. At the same time, they must understand the concepts of diversity and interdisciplinarity (Vest, 2006). As Amadei (2004: 25) puts it,

Clearly, engineers must complement their technical and analytical capabilities with a broad understanding of so-called ‘soft’ issues that are nontechnical.

What are soft skills?

On a general level, soft skills are non-technical abilities required in a specific employment setting that enable someone to:

deliver information or services to customers and co-workers; work effectively as a member of a team; learn or acquire the technical skills necessary to perform a task; inspire the confidence of supervisors and management; and understand and adapt to the cultural norms of the workplace. (Conrad and Leigh, 1999: 5)

Galloway (2007: 49) defines soft skills in an engineering context, stating that they:

include an ability to function on multidisciplinary teams; an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility; an ability to communicate effectively; the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions within a global, economic, environmental, and societal context; a recognition of the need for and an ability to engage in lifelong learning; and a knowledge of contemporary issues.

Drawing from the literature on soft skills significant to the engineering profession, one can list them as:

communication skills (Hillmer et al., 2007; Hissey, 2000; Schroder, 1999; Tong, 2003);

interpersonal skills (Pinkowska and Lent, 2011; Walesh, 2012);

leadership and management skills (Beder, 1999; Hillmer et al., 2007; Schroder, 1999);

critical thinking skills (Pinkowska and Lent, 2011; Schulz, 2008);

problem-solving skills (Belski, 2007; Hissey, 2000; Mohd-Yusof et al., 2014);

creativity and innovation (Schulz, 2008; Schroder, 1999);

conflict resolution skills (Amadei, 2019; Mackay, 2016, Jaffar et al., 2011); and

accountability – ethical, social, economic and environmental (Beder, 1999; Johnson, 2016; Webb, 2019).

Why are soft skills important?

‘Engineers tend to focus more on things than people, logic than emotion, and facts than feelings’ (Visser et al., 2004: 18). A focus on things may leave engineers with insufficient interpersonal skills to take part effectively in people-oriented activities, and yet multidisciplinary skills are needed if they are to complete major projects with people from other fields.

Lions (2006: 1) confirms that

in today’s job market, employers want engineers with the right skills set, who can communicate effectively, and who possess good interpersonal skills. Most company cultures demand that engineers display these traits, and will pick the top candidates who display good social skills during the job interview. Engineering is no longer seen as a solo career, but instead one built upon teamwork and ingenuity.

Finding employment after years of hard work is the main aim of most engineering graduates. However, owing to today’s competitive work market and limited opportunities, this is a dream that is not always realised. According to Steiner (2004: 2), ‘Engineering graduates are being asked to “hit the ground running” and be adaptive to an ever-changing world’. They are required to be technically competent and also to be capable of effective teamwork with colleagues from different backgrounds. They are required to be leaders with confidence, sensitivity, integrity and ethical understanding within a broad environmental, economic and social context. Although most engineering courses are proficient in imparting analytical skills, course designers need to recognise that employers search for people with passion, who can innovate, work in multicultural teams, communicate well verbally and in writing, demonstrate leadership qualities by adapting to changing environments, and who are willing to be lifelong learners (Khalid et al., 2013).

Another factor that emphasises the necessity of soft skills is that, even if they find employment, today’s engineers face challenges on entering the workplace that are very different from those that past generations of engineers had to face. They are confronted with intense ‘global commercial competition, intelligent technology and a constantly changing work environment’ (Galloway, 2007: 49). The technology in their respective fields is evolving very rapidly and when they finally enter the work market graduates may find that some of the technology with which they are familiar has already become obsolete. Soft skills will help them to deal with the pace of change in technology development.

Gammell (2008) sees the application of soft skills in every aspect of life but highlights an important area in which they are crucial. He points out that engineers do not remain in the same engineering position for their whole career; rather, owing to a desire for a higher salary or promotion and because of their problem-solving skills, most are likely to become managers eventually. Soft skills will be crucial in helping them both to achieve and to retain such positions. Furthermore, because of the intense competition for jobs, the lack of corporate jobs and recession, engineers may have to select entrepreneurship as their best available choice for a career, or they may want to pursue an idea they believe in strongly (Platt, 2011). When engineers want to be entrepreneurs, soft skills are vital for their professional success (Crawford, 2012).

There is a growing trend among employers to leave vacancies open rather than fill them with recently qualified graduates if they cannot find candidates with adequate soft skills (McCarthy, 2013). It is often not their technical skills that limit their chances of employment, but qualities like flexibility, motivation and interpersonal skills. Employers prefer candidates they do not have to train in soft or hard skills. Engineering educators need to confront this reality and adapt their teaching repertoire to the requirements of the industry; if they do not, they risk producing graduates who will find it difficult to obtain employment.

Passow (2007) established that communication, problem-solving, ethics and lifelong learning were more important than mathematics, science and engineering knowledge for practising engineering. Tong (2003: 1) concludes that ‘employers prefer to hire new graduates that not only possess technical competencies but also the non-technical project-management’. Hodges and Burchell (2003: 19) note that ‘employers place great emphasis on graduates’ soft skills and their ability to deal empathetically and effectively with customer and client needs’. This is in contrast to the education supplied by traditional degrees that focus on technical development and are seen to be inadequate for producing multi-skilled, flexible and adaptable graduates. Hissey (2000) and Del Vitto (2008) report on similar findings.

Majid et al. (2012) further affirmed discrepancies between employers’ and students’ perceptions of the importance of soft skills. They noted that students considered communication skills to be least important for ‘career advancement and that is probably why they did not try to improve these skills’ (Majid et al., 2012: 1). Hodges and Burchell (2003) report on employers’ comments about the unrealistic expectations of graduates and their deficiencies in interpersonal skills. Employers are looking for work-ready graduates who are adaptable and transformative. They want their employees to take responsibility for their own professional development, which implies that employing organisations are reluctant to invest in the skills development of their employees.

After conducting interviews with various industry executives, industry-related government leaders and academics from around the world, Hissey (2000: 1) stressed that ‘engineers and scientists, both young and experienced, should understand the career-enhancing value of their soft skills in order to progress in today’s global open market economy’. In addition to the fundamental technical skills that engineers should possess when they join an organisation, they are also expected to have other complementary skills that will add value to their performance.

Should soft skills be included in engineering education curricula?

Bush (2012) contends that, despite recent research into the significance of soft skills, there is a misconception that abilities like interpersonal communication, leadership and adaptability are innate and cannot be taught or learned. Organisations avoid investing in something hard to measure. It is easier to obtain tangible evidence of learning after teaching someone how to master a new technical skill than it is to assess someone’s leadership skills. However, Bush argues, these perceptions are changing. Research has shown that soft skills can be taught and learned effectively.

The world has seen a significant revolution in the engineering industry and engineering practice in the past few decades: ‘It, therefore, seems appropriate that engineering education must do the same in order to maintain an effective pace’ (May and Strong, 2006: 205). Galloway (2007) identifies another challenge that has its roots in the past. She maintains that

the content of engineering education was diminished across the globe over the course of the past century in an effort to reduce the cost burden to students and to produce more engineers and to process more revenue through the educational business faster. (Galloway, 2007: 46–47)

Although this move helped to emphasise the technical aspects of engineering, it shifted the focus away from its ethos, ‘which is to improve the quality of life and to protect the public safety, health, and welfare. If an engineer is not trained in public policy, ethics, leadership, communication, and management, an engineer cannot adequately serve the public’ (Galloway, 2007: 47).

In their article ‘Curriculum for an engineering renaissance’, Moore and Voltmer (2003) emphasise that many historical engineering projects, like Incan water canals, Roman transportation, Greek public buildings and the Great Wall of China, were public works designed and constructed for the general good of society.

This focus – serving the needs of society – is the root of and, therefore, should remain the vision for all engineering education. Engineering is a profession that serves humanity and, as such, this theme should be the focus for all engineering curricula, including electrical engineering and computer engineering. (Moore and Voltmer, 2003: 452)

Steiner (2004) argues that the engineering profession is at a crossroads. While the world is witnessing great advances in science, it has become increasingly complex and connected, leading to many socio-technical problems. In future, engineers will have to work in both national and global settings: globalisation will not be a matter of choice, but a reality. Living in a borderless world, they will have to compete with their international counterparts from universities focused on cutting-edge research. They will face greater challenges in the shape of diminishing natural resources, conflicts over energy resources, exploding population, rising pollution, poverty, malnutrition, starvation, as yet unheard-of diseases, natural and man-made disasters, deteriorating infrastructure and technologies of destruction. To meet these challenges, we cannot rely on the last century’s means and methods. Our educational institutions will require a dedicated commitment to engineering research and education. They will need to

advance the frontiers of fundamental science and technology; advance interdisciplinary work and learning; develop a new, broad approach to engineering systems; focus on technologies that address the most important problems facing the world; and recognize the global nature of all things technological. (Vest, 2006: 40)

Engineering is not only about self-development. Pedrazzini (2012) argues that an engineering curriculum should also include the understanding of professional and ethical responsibility, awareness of how engineering decisions impact on the global environment and on political sensibility. May and Strong (2006) emphasise that it is a two-way process, arguing that engineers should consider not only how their new designs and technologies will affect society but also how society will influence the success of their design, substantiating the notion that engineering does not happen in a vacuum.

Slaughter (2013) agrees that global problems like renewable energy, global warming and infrastructure development cannot be solved by mathematics and science alone. These issues demand more than technical knowledge in the education of engineering students:

They require an appreciation for societal values, ethics and cultural mores. They require an understanding of the importance of these features in our research, our analyses, our designs and our deliverables. (Slaughter, 2013: 2)

Our students should be allowed to engage with the liberal arts, humanities and social sciences. We have to rethink what and how we want to teach so that their education is not devoid of moral and ethical values. As is demonstrated in the above commentary, engineers are not just technical experts – they are expected to perform other roles and take on other responsibilities that demand diverse skill sets. Their relationship with society is reciprocal and if they are to survive and succeed in their individual and global contexts, they require soft skills. Engineering education institutions need to take this requirement into account and accordingly make provision for soft skills training in their curricula.

Methodology

This study employs qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. Fifty practising engineering professionals from diverse disciplines were asked to complete a questionnaire and to answer short questions about the value of soft skills in their workplace. A further 10 engineers were also interviewed using the same questionnaire and short question format. These engineers, with varying degrees of experience, were selected from across South Africa. They were provided with an outline of soft skills to avoid any misunderstanding of the term. They were allocated codes from EP#1 to EP#60. Data were collected after the necessary ethical clearance from the central ethics committee of the educational institution with which the author is affiliated.

Data presentation and discussion

Quantitative data

Table 1 shows the quantitative data obtained by means of questionnaires. The responses show that most participants agree that the engineering profession requires more than just technical knowledge. Soft skills play a significant role in engineering work and are necessary for employment and promotion opportunities. They should be included in the professional training of engineers from the undergraduate level.

Table 1.

Quantitative data from the questionnaires.

Statement/Question	Agree %	Disagree %	Not Sure %
Knowledge of Soft Skills
Engineers should be more than technical experts. Do you agree? Why?	96	2	2
Do you think that engineers are considered to be lacking in these skills? Why do you think so?	70	16	14
Role of Soft Skills in Career Development
Do you think employers look for more than technical knowledge when they employ or promote engineering graduates? Please elaborate.	82	12	6
Would soft skills improve your employment and promotion opportunities?	100	0	0
Do you think lack or insufficiency of these skills can hinder such chances?	86	6	8
Education of Soft Skills
Should soft skills be included in your professional training? Give reasons for your answer.	94	4	2
Soft skills should be taught at university from undergraduate level.	86	8	0

Figure 1 presents the quantitative data of the study in graphical form. The participants believe that engineers are perceived to be lacking in soft skills. Most of them agree that these skills should be included in the professional training of engineers.

Figure 1.

Role of soft skills in engineering practice.

Qualitative data

This section reviews the qualitative data obtained from the engineering professionals by means of questionnaires and interviews. To maintain confidentiality, the 50 engineering professionals who completed the questionnaires were allocated code numbers from EP#1 to EP#50. The 10 engineering professionals who were interviewed were allocated code numbers from EP#51 to EP#60.

1. Knowledge of soft skills. Question 1 (Q1) asked, ‘Engineers should be more than technical experts. Do you agree? Why?’ As Table 1 shows, 96% of the respondents agreed. Comments included:

Yes, definitely. I am actually in public service. You have to communicate face-to-face. You deal with a few people that get upset and you need to be able to teach yourself and say that this is not anything personal. This person is just clearly upset and it’s understandable why they are upset, they are not shouting at you, they are shouting or are upset at the situation, you are the person in front of them, so you’ll be getting it. (EP#55)

Yes, without communication they would be limited to small projects. Teamwork and leadership skills are required as soon as a project requires more than one person. (EP#1)

Put differently, those who aspire to be engineers require such skills even when they are students, given the role of teamwork in engineering as observed in the literature. Other respondents noted:

Yes, engineers provide solutions for the betterment of life in general and thus have to have an understanding of non-technical activities, such as economics, social, political, etc. (EP#47)

Yes, because you working with other people. (EP#37)

Such responses as the above identify engineering as a people-serving profession and recognise that you cannot serve society without a knowledge of how it functions.

Q2 asked, ‘What is your understanding of soft skills?’ A highly experienced engineering professional (with 47 years of experience) described how soft skills are manifested in a person’s behaviour towards other people. The response shows that soft skills are about human interaction and how one conducts oneself in a workplace:

The hard skills, for instance, are easier to define for engineers – knowledge of science and mathematics and applying them – but the soft skills apply to human interventions, human interrelations with human beings and how you manage them and how you talk to them and how you respond when they communicate with you, which can be more than just speech, it can be your body language, it can be the way that you command respect through not shouting and performing but just your demeanour. (EP#54)

Other respondents pointed out the complementary relationship between hard and soft skills:

Soft skills are a way of integrating engineering into workplace, engineers need to learn to work with others and communicate effectively. (EP#35)

Soft skills to me mean all other skills besides my core skills which are technical skills. (EP#4)

Q3 asked, ‘Do you think that engineers are considered to be lacking in these skills? Why do you think so?’ As indicated in Table 1, 70% of respondents agreed. Comments included:

Generally a perception exists that engineers do lack personal skills. This is so because generally engineers are drilled in hard skills and by the nature of their work are mainly found in the peripheries of organisational (soft skills) corridors. (EP#48)

Yes, most engineers focus on the technical know-how and, as a result, they forget about the soft skills that will assist them in delivering/showing their technical ability. (EP#26)

This latter response supports the argument that a person with good technical ability nevertheless requires complementary soft skills to be successful in the work environment. Another professional confirmed this view:

They are geeks, so-called geeks, who are lost in their own little world. (EP#54)

One respondent considered the lack of soft skills to be a more general problem:

I wouldn’t say engineers lack soft skills, but I believe that people in general have a lack of them in one way or other and there arises a need to polish them. (EP#46)

2. Application of soft skills. Q4 asked, ‘Compared to the past, the practice of a modern engineer has a highly technological context. How will soft skills support engineers in this environment?’ One respondent provided an interesting answer to this question:

No, it’s the other way around, technology supports the soft skills. Practising engineers always needed soft skills. Only the successful ones had [them]. (EP#49)

In other words, from this perspective, technology, soft skills and engineering go hand in hand and there is no separating one from the other. Another respondent stressed the importance of combining technology, soft skills and engineering to get the job done:

Six-year old can do a PowerPoint presentation, iPads, iPhones…their Daddy gets stuck. Now you can do your job at a coffee shop from home. People are there, they want instant results nowadays…communication is a key thing now. We are not living on an island. (EP#53)

Q5 asked, ‘In which areas of an engineer’s practice are these skills required?’ A senior academic familiar with the application of soft skills in industry talked about the need for these skills to advance one’s career or one’s venture into entrepreneurship:

The higher one goes the corporate ladder or if you start your own business, and we hope that many of our students will do so and some do very successfully, the more you need all of these skills. They got to be able to analyse to say this will never…or I can change this and make it work. They got to be able to think deeply about the problem they are going to solve, so critical thinking is crucial. (EP#54)

Because there is now intense competition for most jobs, there is an increased likelihood that some engineering graduates will want to carve out a path for themselves by embarking on an entrepreneurial venture. In such cases, soft skills such as leadership are essential. Leadership skills are also needed, of course, for those who want to further their career and so regularly need to communicate with others and undertake more responsibility.

Many respondents believed that soft skills were applied generally throughout the industry:

All areas. (EP#8)

Everywhere in engineering industry, soft skills are employed. (EP#4)

3. Role of soft skills in career development. Q6 asked, ‘Do you think employers look for more than technical knowledge when they employ or promote engineering graduates? Please elaborate.’ As shown in Table 1, 82% of the respondents thought that employers did look for more than technical skills. A respondent with substantial experience in both industry and academia commented:

Very much so, we’ve feedback from engineering people, people who are interviewing prospective students – employers…and they often say that the things they look for, number one, can they express themselves verbally? Or what sort of skills that they have in terms of relationships with others? Can they work in a team with people…oral communication or verbal communication, what is their ability to write reports, the thinking, logical thinking and what does not come with practise, but those things, they are looking for the ability to speak, express yourself, communicate and work with others. (EP#56)

This engineering professional highlights what employers in the industry are looking for in their prospective engineering employees: people skills are identified as the most important quality that prospective employees should possess. Another engineering professional concurred with this view:

I think they do. Because in your interviews you do get the question, can you work in a team and can you work alone? I mean I know some people can actually say yes, yes, yes. But they actually can’t work in team when you want the job, you promise them moon and stars, I can work under pressure and everything but actually they can’t. (EP#58)

Another respondent stressed the value of possessing soft skills:

They do. Soft skills have a big advantage. This shows that the person can coordinate a team, work with others, communicate and problem-solve. As an engineer, you have people working under you, so these skills are important.(EP#35)

On the other hand, another engineering professional expressed a somewhat different opinion:

No, definitely not, I’ve actually seen that in the workplace that you do need somebody who has the technical knowledge, but is also able to communicate and cooperate and interact with other individuals because you will rarely find a job where you’re self-sufficient and you’re given a job and everything is dependent on yourself. You need to somewhere along the line communicate with somebody else. To survive in the workplace, you do need to have these soft skills. (EP#55)

What this interviewee wants to convey is that employers do not focus on soft skills, but should be looking for them when they employ new people because a job in which a person will be able to work on their own does not exist. Communication with other people is essential in any workplace and it requires soft skills. Another respondent provided a similar perspective:

No, they are more focused on technical skills, which they believe gets the ‘Job Description’ done, therefore, compromising soft skills that are very critical in managing people who participate in every project (the work we are all employed to complete). (EP#38)

This respondent stresses, then, that soft skills are critical for completing engineering assignments even if employers underestimate their importance when hiring or promoting employees.

Q7 asked, ‘Would soft skills improve your employment and promotion opportunities? Give reasons for your answer’. This was one question which produced a general consensus. All of the engineering professionals agreed that the possession of soft skills would improve a graduate’s employment and promotion opportunities. This general agreement reflects the perceived significance of these skills in the workplace. One engineering practitioner provided a very straightforward response:

Obviously your engineering or your technical skills are important, but I think those mean nothing if not complemented by the soft skills. You can have all the knowledge in the world, but if you can’t pass it on it’s useless. (EP#55)

And another respondent noted:

Engineers have to constantly reinvent themselves because things do change, technology does change rapidly and you’ve got to read, you’ve got to assimilate information and if you don’t, you won’t survive. (EP#54)

This confirms our earlier argument that soft skills are necessary because engineers cannot always depend on their technical skills alone. One respondent related an account of her own success:

Management opportunities, myself, for example, went from graduate in training level to junior management level, the main contributor was my ability to apply soft skills in conjunction with technical skills. (EP#38)

As one respondent put it,

Gone are the days companies looking for someone who is a whiz in technology alone or engineering, but they also look for someone who can embody the organisational ideals. (EP#46)

In other words, those who are looking to be employed need to be more than just technically competent; they need to be leaders of the future.

Q8 asked, ‘Do you think lack or insufficiency of these soft skills can hinder such chances? If yes, why?’ As shown in Table 1, 86% of the respondents agreed. For example:

Without a doubt. There must be a healthy balance of developing a total [holistic engineer]. That should be your prime objective to make your graduate employable. If you don’t have that part, what’s the use? The guy may be technically brilliant 100% and then other things are lacking, can’t communicate well, can’t understand…. (EP#53)

This engineering professional, who has over 50 years of experience in the engineering world, emphasised that having good grades is not enough if a graduate is unable to find employment. This can happen if he or she lacks soft skills. Another respondent commented,

Yes, engineers are leaders in industry; they become supervisors, managers, advisors, etc. For the engineers to succeed in their roles, soft skills are a necessity. (EP#4)

One of the engineering professionals made it very clear what management considered when promoting employees:

Yes. Because you will only be promoted if management is sure that you can take responsibility and lead by example. (EP#23)

Among the 6% of respondents who disagreed, one made the following observation, suggesting that, if an employee wished to remain in the technical field, the lack of soft skills would not hinder their chances:

Not really, there are 2 streams – technical, management. (EP#7)

Q9 asked respondents to ‘Describe a situation in your experience where the lack of soft skills prevented professional progress. Suggest reasons on how this could have been resolved’. Respondents related several incidents from their experience in which the lack of soft skills had prevented professional progress. A common theme was that people with inadequate soft skills had found themselves in positions where they were either not employed or remained in unimportant roles in an organisation. For example:

There has been a case of a person that I know of who simply due to their outspokenness but in a very negatively critical way of other people and I know for a fact that that has hindered that person’s prospective chances in an interview. (EP#56)

Yes. In dealing with interviews, I thought it was always about memorising questions and I lost a lot of roles because of that but it’s about you, internalising. (EP#46)

One must not forget that engineering professionals have to communicate with people from all spheres of life including those from technical and non-technical backgrounds:

I was earmarked for promotion and subsequently passed over, when the team I worked with found me hard to please…found me lacking in compassion and empathy. (EP#7)

One engineering professional with over 16 years of experience summed up the importance of soft skills in a fast-paced environment:

You always need to function in a team at different levels, and you must always be approachable and people must feel that they can trust your point of view. Lack of soft skills creates issues and in a manufacturing environment people do not have the time/patience to tolerate people issues. (EP#6)

4. Education of soft skills. Q10 asked, ‘Should soft skills be included in your professional training? Give reasons for your answer.’ As Table 1 indicates, 94% of the respondents thought that soft skills should be included in professional training. An engineering professional with 40 years of experience emphasised that soft skills

should be taught during formal study period so that the newly qualified engineer is able to apply these skills immediately without first having to acquire them in the workplace. (EP#24)

This view, indeed, resonates with the opinion of several other experienced engineering professionals, whose observations are noted in the literature review. Hissey (2000) notes that engineering companies are looking for work-ready graduates so that they will not have to make additional investment in them. As one respondent commented,

Yes, big companies have induction programmes, ethics, safety. Every company has a code of ethics, risk management, safety…small companies don’t have the resources so guys get thrown in the deep end. (EP#53)

Since not all companies have the resources to invest in soft skills training for their employees, training institutions need to incorporate soft skills in their curricula so that their graduates will have an advantage.

Q11 asked, ‘Where should they acquire this knowledge?’ Many of the respondents were of the view that the engineering graduates’ soft skills education should have started at school level:

They can’t acquire all. No, no, I see it, the problem we have is that the schooling system does not equip them properly, ideally that’s where they should have the first exposure and a lot of the basics should be dealt with. We should be taking those soft skills and refining them a bit better, giving them more chance to practise them. (EP#56)

Another respondent, EP#3, believed that soft skills should not be taught at engineering institutions but should be acquired ‘in community, family, friends, church’. This implies that, in the view of this respondent, educational institutions cannot contribute to the development of soft skills, which is arguable. However, most respondents believed they should be taught ‘at the tertiary institution, before obtaining the qualification’ (EP#4) or ‘at high school and university level’ (EP#35).

Q12 asked for responses to the statement that ‘Soft skills should be taught at university from undergraduate level’. Most of the respondents (86%) agreed that these skills should be taught from undergraduate level, confirming the point of view of Rugarcia et al. (2000), who argue that engineers now face challenges that are notably different from those that encountered by their predecessors, and that these will be even more different in the future. As a consequence, ‘Significant changes in engineering education will be required if we are to meet the needs of our graduates in preparing them for the challenges of the coming century’ (Rugarcia et al., 2000: 5).

Discussion

A comprehensive review of the literature shows that the 21st century has not only seen astonishing advances in technology, but has also changed the landscape of the engineering profession. In fact, the rate of change is unprecedented, and this constant evolution means that technology can rapidly become out of date. As a result, engineering is no longer considered to be neatly divided into various disciplines; nor does it involve the knowledge of technology only. To find creative and suitable solutions for today’s problems, engineers must successfully integrate knowledge from many disciplines in the sciences, arts, humanities and social sciences. Furthermore, the continually rising world population, and globalisation have led to an emphasis on the sustainability of world resources and social responsibility.

Although globalisation and increased economic activity have contributed to environmental pollution, they also prevent damage. Through globalisation, huge investments are made in search of green technologies to reduce pollution and climate change. Furthermore, globalisation ensures that countries are held accountable and that environmental solutions are networked worldwide for all to benefit (Afesorgbor and Demena, 2018). Such networks of innovative collaboration have implications for the engineering profession. To survive and benefit from the diversity around them, engineering and science graduates have to learn to work in teams and with colleagues from different cultures and with different ideologies and languages.

When various stakeholders interact within an organisational context, misunderstandings can always occur. For this reason, interpersonal skills are vital for the engineer. If engineers cannot listen actively and receptively to their various co-workers and clients, project success is at stake. If they were to rely solely on their technical skills, they would be unable to complete their team projects and would probably be left with misperceptions and loss of time, capital and even their job. On the other hand, effective communication skills support the accomplishment of project goals and productive relationships with employers, co-workers and clients. The responses obtained in this study, confirming that engineers are required to work alongside professionals from several other disciplines to develop technologies for the benefit of humankind, stress the importance of these factors. Technology alone is not sufficient to address the day-to-day living problems of humans around the globe. Engineers need to consider the society within which they work if they are to deliver satisfactory solutions. They need to work with others for their mutual benefit. Being able to solve problems innovatively and creatively while building interpersonal relationships is important for personal and professional success.

Due to the growing demands on the professional competence of engineering graduates and increasing international competition, it is necessary for engineering education institutions ‘to position themselves in the shifting educational marketplace by implementing programs that reflect change’ (Splitt, 2003: 31). May and Strong (2006: 210) note that a considerable gap exists between engineering education and industry demands. In addition to the focus on mathematics and engineering, engineering education should also emphasise professional and social responsibilities. The responses obtained in this study verify that a discrepancy does exist between graduates’ application of soft skills and employers’ requirements with regard to soft skills. A suggestion is that employers should look for these skills when employing engineers. The engineering professionals concur that soft skills contribute to their professional development and that a lack of these skills can impede such development.

Conclusion

The development or use of technology must be considered in its human, social, ethical, environmental, political and economic contexts. Those who can innovate must also be critically conscious of the power which accompanies that ability. If we want our engineering graduates to have all the relevant knowledge, skills and values that are required by today’s industry, we need to design and develop an engineering curriculum that is aligned to its demands. The aim of providing professional training at educational institutions is to enable graduates both to find employment in a highly competitive job market and to develop into socially aware and responsible citizens who can contribute to the uplifting of their communities. They need also to be members of a global community, with skills that are readily transferable across different contexts. It is therefore important that the education with which they are provided is compatible with their roles in 21st century society.

It is also vital that, if it is to remain relevant, the engineering academic institution remains open to emerging challenges and globalisation. Academics will need to think and act in tandem with engineering practice in the real world and students will need high technical skills combined with an ability to adjust and adapt to the dynamic world of the engineering profession.

May and Strong (2006) discuss the expectations of different stakeholders with regard to the engineering curriculum. Students want a rewarding educational experience and to emerge form it with the ability to secure good-quality jobs. Employers are interested in young graduates who have demonstrated the skills of ‘experienced veterans’ who will do their jobs proficiently. Educators are concerned that they do justice to teaching as well as research. Universities are looking to attract future students and to be financially successful. Society expects their engineers to design and develop the best engineering systems while ensuring their safety. ‘Each of these stakeholders has demanding expectations, and engineering education needs to find balance in responding to all’. (May and Strong, 2006: 208)

This study collected data from 60 engineering professionals working across South Africa in different positions and with varying levels of experience in the public and private sectors. These professionals were trained in different engineering disciplines at various educational institutions in South Africa. They are men and women engineering practitioners of different ages and speaking diverse home languages. However, this study confirms that all, with no exception, have at least one thing in common besides being an engineering professional: they all firmly believe that soft skills improve engineering graduates’ employment and promotion opportunities.

An overwhelming majority (96%) also believe that engineers are more than technical experts because they work with people for the betterment of society. Many (70%) believe that engineers tend to lack social skills and are considered ‘geeks’. Most (82%) also think that employers look for more than technical knowledge when they employ or promote engineering graduates, and 86% believe that soft skills will improve their chances of employment or promotion and that a lack or insufficiency of these skills will hinder such chances.

Nearly all (94%) agree that soft skills should be included in the professional training of engineers, with 86% affirming that soft skills should be taught at university from undergraduate level if not earlier. The message is clear: if engineering graduates want to be employed or promoted, they cannot ignore soft skills. Educational institutions need to pay heed to this message and incorporate soft skills training into their engineering education curricula.

Employers are looking for graduates who can combine their knowledge and complementary soft skills ability with their technical competence in executing their engineering tasks (Tong, 2003: 6). They require graduates who can solve today’s engineering problems without creating more, and who can blend into a highly technological yet people-oriented profession with ease. Engineering institutions need to recognise the importance that soft skills will have in the execution of professional tasks by their graduates. They should thus assign those skills due place in the engineering curricula so that new graduates will not be at a disadvantage when seeking employment and so that, once employed, they will be able to navigate their career paths successfully by blending their technical and their soft skills.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The author would like to express sincere appreciation to the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS), South Africa, for supporting this study under reference number SDS14/1065.

ORCID iD

Fouzia Munir

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