A Study on the Key Soft Skills for Successful Participation of Students in Multinational Engineering Education

Abstract

Soft-skills have proved to be a necessary complement to technical skills in today’s multinational workplaces. As universities are facing the challenge of promoting internationalization and mobility in students and teachers, they have to decide how to help their students in developing these skills as well as increase their awareness on the cultural differences in multinational settings. After a long trajectory of participation in multinational educational experiences, the authors launched a survey to check if their previous findings on the preferred soft skills by educational experts and managers still remain valid after 5 years. Another goal of the study was the analysis of the link between preference for specific soft skills and cultural background in each country as characterized by Hofstede’s indicators. The data collected from 123 experts from 45 different countries have confirmed the existence of a stable core set of preferred soft skills at global level and also for European countries. Results have also shown links between specific cultural indicators and preference for some soft skills.