2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

WIP: Key Technical and Professional Skills Valued by Engineering Employers for Workforce Success

Presented at First-Year Programs Division (FPD) Work-in-Progress 2: Skills Development and Career Preparation

The goal of this study is to find out which professional and technical skills are seen as important by different engineering industries. Professional skills are people skills that help with communication and teamwork and they are essential to achieve organizational development and effectiveness. Technical skills, however, are specific knowledge needed to complete tasks or solve problems and they are important for helping companies be productive, grow and work well.
This study focused on two main questions: What technical and professional skills do employers want their engineers to master? And how do these skills differ by industry? This project was conducted in an R1, land-grant, large public university in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Thirty-seven employers took part in a survey shared at the 2024 STEM career fair through a QR code. The participants worked in engineering-related fields including manufacturing, construction, energy, and environmental science. The survey included multiple-choice and open-ended questions, and the study was approved by the university’s Institutional Review Board.
All of the industry sectors in the study valued the professional skills of teamwork, effective communication (oral and written), and time management. The top technical skills that employers needed were using appropriate estimation techniques and computational tools (such as Excel, MATLAB), and analyzing data using statistics. Differences were found, depending on the type of industry, regarding which skills were most important. The results from this study will help first year engineering programs decide which professional and technical skills should be emphasized in engineering courses to better prepare students for their careers. These key skills will be discussed in this paper.

Authors

Dr. Atheer Almasri West Virginia University [biography]

Dr. Almasri is currently a teaching assistant professor in the Fundamentals of Engineering Program (FEP) at the Statler College of Engineering, West Virginia University. He has been serving in this position since 2020. Before joining West Virginia University, he worked as a teaching assistant professor of chemical engineering at Imam University for 10 years. Dr. Almasri holds a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering, as well as master's and Ph.D. degrees in Materials Engineering.
Dr. Lizzie Santiago West Virginia University [biography]

Lizzie Y. Santiago, Ph.D., is a Teaching Professor and Director of the Fundamentals of Engineering Program in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and has postdoctoral training in Neural Tissue Engineering.
Dr. Todd R Hamrick West Virginia University [biography]

Dr. Todd Hamrick, Ph.D. is aTeaching Professor in the Fundamentals of Engineering Program at West Virginia University Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, a position he has held since 2011.
Dr. Robin A.M. Hensel http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1858-6452 West Virginia University [biography]

Robin A. M. Hensel, Ed.D., is a Teaching Professor in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at West Virginia University and an ASEE Fellow Member. As a mathematician and computer systems analyst for the U.S. Department of Energy, she collaborated in engineering teams to support energy research before entering higher education where she has taught mathematics, statistics, computer science, and engineering courses, secured over $6.6M to support STEM education research, led program development efforts, and served in several administrative roles. She has been recognized for her teaching, advising, service, and research and as an Exemplary Faculty Member for Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Dr. Carter Hulcher West Virginia University [biography]

Dr. Hulcher is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Fundamentals of Engineering Program in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV. He has been in his current role at WVU since 2020. Dr. Hulcher holds degrees in Civil Engineering, as well as Mathematics.
Dr. Akua B. Oppong-Anane West Virginia University [biography]

Akua Oppong-Anane is a Teaching Assistant Professor at the Fundamentals of Engineering Program at West Virginia University. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering, a Master's degree in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering Sciences. Her research areas are in environmental engineering, advising and engineering education (persistence and retention of first year engineering students).

Download paper (1.21 MB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session