Divergence of ideas on hard and soft skills in the engineering specialties education

The current issue of training engineering personnel based on the competency-based approach has been studied. At the same time, the interpretation of the hard and soft skills structure essence and perception often differs among different groups of stakeholders as participants in the educational process. The contradiction in perception negatively affects the competency-based approach implementation. The purpose of the study is to conduct a comparative analysis of the approaches of students, educational programs developers, and employers to the hard and soft skills interpretation and the degree of their formation in the process of studying engineering specialties at university. The study was carried out using the questionnaire survey method. Four universities of one of the large regions of Russia, Western Siberia, took part in the survey. The questionnaire method was an online survey. A total of 215 students and 44 teachers were surveyed, mainly educational programs developers. Among the sample participants were 41 representatives of large manufacturing companies in the region, most of whom work in the personnel management sphere. The main conclusions were the facts confirmed by the empirical study, both coincidences and differences in the hard and soft skills interpretation, their structure, main characteristics, and purposes, which were demonstrated by students, university representatives, and enterprises. Conclusions were made about the importance of forming a common understanding of competencies and their role on the part of different participants in the educational process and educational services consumers. The article may be useful for researchers and practitioners in the sphere of developing competencies in engineering specialties students at universities.

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