Journal of Engineering Education Transformations

Journal of Engineering Education Transformations

Year: 2020, Volume: 34, Issue: 2, Pages: 75-88

Original Article

Fostering 21st Century Skills of the Students of Engineering and Technology

Abstract

Employment opportunities are scramming from the reach of Indian engineering graduates due to their inadequate skills set. This evinces the skills gap prevailing between the workplace preparedness of the students of engineering and the exigencies of global workforce. 21st Century Skills are the competencies required from the students of present era to succeed in their life and career, in the absence of which the students encounter major employment deficit. Although, studies have been conducted on the need for 21st Century skills and on training teachers to instigate students' skills set, the inevitable focus on students' perception towards their need for career prospects has been left unexplored. Hence, the paper prospects the preparedness and potential of the students of engineering with respect to Learning and Innovation Skills and Life and Career Skills of 21st Century Skills. An online survey with self-rating questionnaire has been administered using random sampling technique among 111 final year students of Mookambigai College of Engineering and Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Engineering College, Tamil Nadu, between December 2018 and January 2019. Descriptive analysis, and parametric tests have been computed to investigate the data using SPSS. The findings have indicated the dearth of students' skills set in employing 21st Century skills set. The results imply the desideratum of enhancing the students' skills set that the study eventually recommends the integration of 21st Century skills set in English classroom of engineering and technology to meet the demands of the workplace.

References

  • Aluko, Y.A. (2014) Gender Influence on Potential Graduates Perceptions of the Importance of Employability Skills: An Exploratory Study, East African Journal of Educational Research and Policy, 10, 83-106.
  • AMA. (2019) AMA Critical Skills Survey: Workers Need Higher level Skills to succeed in the 21st Century, Retrieved August 2, 2020, from https://www.amanet.org/articles/ama-criticalskillssurvey-workers-need-higher-level-skillstosucceed-in-the-21st-century/
  • Aspiring Minds. (2016), National Employability Report: Engineers. Retrieved August 2, 2020, from https://www.aspiringminds.com/researchreports/ national-employability-report-forengineers2016/
  • Bhola, S. S. and Dhanawade, S.S. (2013). doi:10.2139/ssrn.2290103
  • Cahit, E. (2019) A Review on the Relationship between Critical Thinking Skills and Learning Domains of Turkish Language, Educational Research and Reviews, 14 (3), 66-77. doi: 10.5897/ERR2018.3658
  • Casner-Lotto, J. and Barrington, L. (2006) Are They Really Ready to Work? Employers' Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to the 21st Century US Workforce, Retrieved August 2, 2020 from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED519465
  • Chopra, R. (2019, 4 April) Indian Engineering students gain in first two years, high-order thinking is poor': Study, Indian Express, R e t r i e v e d A u g u s t 2 , 2 0 2 0 , f r o m https://indianexpress.com/article/education/indian-engineering-students-gain-in-first-two-years-high-order-thinking-is-poor-study-5122475/
  • Chu, S. K W., Reynolds, R. B., Travares, N. J., Notari, M. and Lee, C. W. Y. (2017), 21st Century skills Development through InquiryBased learning: From Theory to Practice, Springer Science+Business Media, Singapore.
  • Clement, A and Murugavel, T. (2015) English for Employability: A Case Study of the English Language Training Need Analysi s for Engineering Students in India, English Language Teaching, 8(2), 116-125.
  • Dam, V. K. (2013), Employee adaptability to change at work: A multidimensional, resourcebased framework, in The Psychology of
  • Organizational Change: Viewing Change from the Employee's Perspective, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 123-142.
  • Dede, Chris. (2009), Comparing Frameworks for �21st Century Skills�, in 21st Century Skills: Rethinking how Students Learn, Solution Tree Press, Bloomington, IN, pp. 51-76.
  • Denecke, D., Justice, K., Magenheim, A. Parkhouse, M., Telford, S., Vanderlinde, G. and Kramer, S. (2009), 21st Century Skills, April 16, 2009, Madeira City Schools Planning Commission, Retrieved August 2, 2020, from https://www.madeiracityschools.org/docs/21st %20Century%20Report%20with%20Appendices.pdf
  • Egnor, G. P. (2013), A Case Study of 21st Century Skills in High Achieving Elementary Schools in Pennsylvania (Doctoral Dissertation), Retrieved August 2, 2020, from https://search.proquest.com/docview/13527532 31
  • Ercan, M. F. and Khan, R. (2017) Teamwork as a fundamental Skill for engineering graduates, 2017 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering, The Education University of Hong Kong, 12-14 December 2017.
  • Esponda, F. and Guerrero, V. M. (2009) Surveys with Negative Questions for Sensitive Items. Statistics and Probability Letters, 79 (24), 24562461.
  • Fandino, Y.J. (2013) 21st Century Skills and the English Foreign Language Classroom: A Call for More Awareness in Colombia, Gist Education and Learning Research Journal, 7, 190-208.
  • Farr, J. V. and Brazil, D. M. (2009) Leadership Skills Development for Engineers, Engineering Management Journal, 21 (1), 3-8.
  • Horrell,S., Rubery, J. and Burchell, B. (1990) Gender and Skills, Work, Employment & Society, 4 (2), 189-216.
  • Kazerounian, K and Foley, S. (2007) Barriers to Creativity in Engineering Education: A Study of Instructors and Students Perceptions, Journal of Mechanical Design, 129, 761-768.
  • Kelly, T. N. N. (2018) Accountability and Employee Performance, Central University of Applied Sciences, Kokkola, Finland.
  • Lemmetty, S. and Collin, K. (2019) SelfDirected Learning as a Practice of Workplace Learning: Interpretative Repertoires of SelfDirected Learning in ICT Work, Vocations and Learning, 13, 47-70. doi: 10.1007/s12186-01909228-x
  • Lichtenegger, B. (2014) 21st Century SkillsStatus Quo in Austrian HLW EFL Classrooms and Implications for Teaching (M.Phil. Dissertation), Retrieved August 2, 2020 from http://othes.univie.ac.at/33173/
  • McLachlan, K. (2012), A Case Study of 21st Century Skills Programs and Practices (Doctoral dissertation), Retrieved August 2, 2020 from http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ p15799coll3/id/3094
  • Microsoft Partners in Learning and the Pearson Foundation (2013), 21st Century Skills and the Workplace: A 2013 Microsoft Partners in Learning and Pearson Foundation Study, Gallup, Washington, DC.
  • Morell, L. (2010) Engineering Education in the 21st Century: Roles, Opportunities and Chal l enges , Int ernat ional , Journal of Technology and Engineering Education, 7 (2), 110.
  • National Skill Development Corporation (2007), Human Resource and Skills Requirements in the IT and ITeS Sector (2013-17, 2017-22), KPMG Advisory Services Pvt Ltd, Retrieved August 2, 2020 from https://nsdcindia.org/sites/default/ files/IT-and-ITeS.pdf
  • Oliver, B. (2016, December) Strategies that Promotes 21st Century Skills, Just for the Asking, Retrieved August 2, 2020 from https://justaskpublications.com/just-askresourcecenter/e-newsletters/just-for-theasking/ strategies-that-promote-21st-centuryskills/
  • P21 (Partnership for 21st Century Skills) (2009), P21 Framework Definitions, Retrieved August 2, 2020 from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ ED519462.pdf
  • PeopleStrong, Wheebox, CII, Pearson, AIU, AICTE and UNDP (2018), India Skills Report 2018, Retrieved August 2, 2020 from https://www.peoplestrong.com/wpcontent/uploads/2019/08/ISR_2018_FullVersio n.pdf
  • Ramanan, L., Kumar, M. and Ramanakumar, K.P.V. (2015) Approach Towards Reducing Soft Skill Gap of Engineering Graduates in India from Employers' Perspective to Employability, International Journal of Engineering Research Online, 3 (6), 504-512.
  • Robbins, K. (2017) 21st Century Skills: Student Readiness, Opportunities, and Development (Master's Thesis), Retrieved August 2, 2020 from http://thescholarship.ecu.edu/handle/ 10342/6121
  • Samavedham, L. and Ragupathi, K. (2012) Facilitating 21st Century Skills in Engineering Students, The Journal of Engineering Education, 26 (1), 37-49.
  • Schuller, T. (2011), Gender and Skills in a Changing Economy, UK Commission for Employment and Skills, Longview, Retrieved August 2, 2020 from http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/10463/1/equalitygender.pdf
  • Shubina, I. and Kulakli, A. (2019) Critical Thinking, Creativity and Gender Difference for Knowledge Generation in Education, Literacy Information and Computer Education Journal, 10 (1), 3086-3093.
  • Sloka, et al. (2015) Employers' Needs and Expectations for Qualified Employees (Case Study on the Opinions in one of the Regions of Latvia), Economics and Business, 27, 69-75. doi: 10.1515/eb-2015-0011
  • Soltis, L. and Hastings, M. (2017), 2017 Workforce Needs Survey: A Survey of Employers in the Roanoke Region of Virginia, Retrieved from August 2, 2020 https://virginiawestern.edu/cte/docs/2017WorkforceNeedsSurvey.pdf
  • Srigayathridevi, K. and Thamaraiselvi, R. (2006) Communications Skills among the Final Year Engineering Students in an Autonomous Engineering College in Coimbatore, India: an Evaluation, The Journal of Nepalese Business Studies, III (1), 114-119.
  • Srividhya and Vijayakumari, D. G. (2017) Employability Trends of Engineering Graduates in Tamil Nadu, Economics, 3 (6), 65-66.
  • ]Stefanenko, T. and Kupavskaya, A. (2012), Developing Cross-cultural Competence, in Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning, Springer, Boston, MA. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-14286_1818
  • Sural, I. (2017) 21st Century Skills Level of Teacher Candidates, European Journal of Education Studies, 3 (8), 530-538. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v0i0.949
  • Suto, I. (2013) 21st Century Skills: Ancient, Ubiquitous, Engimatic? Research Matters: A Cambridge Assessment Publication, (15), 2-8.
  • Trilling, B. and Fadel, C. (2009), 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in our Times, JosseyBass, San Franciso.
  • Trivedi, A. (2013) A Study of Literature Review on Individual Accountability, doi : https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2314551.
  • Unni, J. (2016) Skill Gaps and Employability: Higher Education in India, Journal of Development Policy and Practice, 1 (1), 1-17. doi: 10.1177/0000000315612310

DON'T MISS OUT!

Subscribe now for latest articles and news.