Document Type
Journal Article
Publisher
Canadian Center of Science and Education
Faculty
Faculty of Computing, Health and Science
School
School of Computer and Security Science
RAS ID
12366
Abstract
It is recognized that non-technical or soft skills are a vital part of the IT curriculum and hence are considered to be core curriculum components, particularly in the USA and Australia and is also an important worldwide issue. An extensive analysis within an Australian university context found a mismatch between employer expectations and the university-based instruction in these skills. However, it was noted that this unpreparedness in soft skills may be because students may not have appreciated the importance of these skills – a result confirmed by this study, which used a questionnaire delivered to project students undertaking a range of IT based courses. Internships are not common in Australia and hence to address this problem guest speakers from industry are now regularly invited to give presentations to project students. Furthermore it was also found that those students who had workplace experience more fully appreciated the role of workplace soft skills than those who did not have such experience. This study clearly indicates the importance of a team based project unit for teaching soft skills. A further implication is that students need to be made aware of the importance of soft skills in the workplace as a part of their studies.
DOI
10.5539/mas.v5n2p3
Access Rights
free_to_read
Comments
This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of: Makasiranondh, W. , Maj, S. P., & Veal, D. R. (2011). Student opinions on their development of non-technical skills in IT education. Modern Applied Science, 5(2), 3-10. Available here