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CLEMENTINA MARINONI ECCE – THE ENGINEERING OBSERVATORY ON COMPETENCE-BASED CURRICULA FOR JOB ENHANCEMENT - THE BASIS FOR A EUROPEAN PERMANENT ALLIANCE BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES AND ENTERPRISES IN THE ENGINEERING FIELD
Fig. 2 below shows common results in regard to the competence area on Management and Sustainability. This is one of the most critical competence areas because what has been acquired at the end of study is much lower than both what is required in enterprises and what is desired by alumni. Full results are available on the ECCE website. In general, it is clear that soft skills, i.e. communication, relation and behaviour capabilities are quite critical and present a deep gap between companies’ requirements and school answers. Figure 2: Common results on Management and Sustainability Ability to evaluate the economic implications of different egineering solutions 3,0 2,5 Awareness of legal, health a nd safety issues (and any corresponding standards)
2,0 1,5
Ability to apply project management techniques to handle engineering activities and projects
1,0 0,5 0,0
Ability to apply risk assessment techniques to handle engineering activities and projects
Ability to evaluate the social implications of different engineering solutions
Ability to evaluate the enviromental implications od different engineering solutions
Desired level at the end of studies
Level reached at the end of studies
Level required in current job
Source: ECCE elaboration
Conclusions The specific ECCE findings are related to skill-competence areas of improvement. ECCE pointed out that young people mainly need to develop further the so called soft skills or basic skills or transversal competences, some of them summarized in the Key Competences for Lifelong Learning. European Reference Framework, 2007. More generally, the method adopted to write and position LOs and the surveys addressing alumni, companies and universities were aimed at finding a transparent way for these parties to communicate with each