2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This paper focuses on development and delivery of soft skill modules to be integrated into technical curriculum at the high school level. The authors also discuss their possible implementation at this engineering department including its manufacturing program.

After receiving grant funding from a local foundation, the cross-disciplinary team encompassing social sciences and engineering professors identified local school district partners, and took charge of the technical and soft skills development efforts. One of the technical areas selected was advanced/digital manufacturing, with content in 3D scanning, 3D printing and additive manufacturing (AM), multiple realities (MR), industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and robotics. Materials developed was intended for upper level high school students. While equipping these students with the relevant technical skills, the proposed program included the development of several essential soft skills to help students excel in the workplace. These soft skills were considered to cover three distinct exemplar themes and was to be integrated into the proposed technical curriculum for greater effectiveness. These themes were labeled as defining/knowing one’s self, being a professional, and practicing with ethics. The instruction and practice of the specified soft skills, which we further refined based on needs assessment activities was designed as several discrete modules. Each module covers a skill that contributes to one or more of the themes and contained instructions for teachers to use the module. Each module included several activities and learning opportunities that can be tied directly with the technical content being delivered. The main objective was to make these activities repeatable in different classes to help reinforce the skills. Further, supported by the outcomes of the needs’ assessment, the delivery of these modules was to be integrated within the proposed technical modules or leveraged as components of existing STEM curricula. Modules included the requisite instructional content and activities (e.g. deliverables) along with insights and guidance on module integration (e.g. mappings between soft skills activities and technical activities) and assessment at the student (learner), teacher (instructor), and overall programmatic levels.

In total, nine team/teamwork modules including teamwork, problem solving, decision making, leadership (with the sub-contents of team organization, influence and motivation, conflict management, peer and team evaluation as well as reporting and presentation) were prepared, in addition to six individual skill modules covering skills such as dependability, responsibility, independence, persistence, integrity, and ethics.
This paper demonstrates integration of the soft skills modules into the technical curriculum developed via examples, and discusses its potential uses in this engineering department’s curriculum including its manufacturing engineering program. The paper concludes with feedback from the schools involved and the reflection of the authors. It also includes future work content such as incorporating emotional intelligence into engineering curriculum, similar to a business curriculum.