Professional paper
https://doi.org/10.32903/zs.64.1.6
Employers' Demands About the Communication Skills from Students' Perspectives
Dragana Božić Lenard
; Sveučilište Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku Fakultet elektrotehnike, računarstva i informacijskih tehnologija Osijek Osijek, Hrvatska
Ljiljana Pintarić
; Sveučilište Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku Filozofski fakultet u Osijeku Osijek, Hrvatska
Abstract
Internationalization and fierce competitiveness are the benchmarks of the contemporary labour market. Everyday challenges and ever-increasing demands have altered the roles of electrical and computer engineers, i.e. in order to rise up to challenges, engineers have to develop communication skills. This paper aimed to study students’ opinions on potential employers’ demands regarding communication skills. 99 students studying at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Information Technology Osijek participated in the anonymous survey. The results were processed with the software for statistical analysis SPSS. According to the results, the students perceive their prospective employers as very demanding. They expect that employers will demand an engaged listener, a high level of professionalism, the application of business e-mail etiquette, usage of standardized Croatian and an advanced level of the English language and demonstration of considerable presentation skills. The results point to the imperative need of implementing specialized soft skills courses as well as reviewing and upgrading current technical courses where, by given various project assignments, students will broaden soft skills thus becoming more competitive on the labour market.
Keywords
survey; engineers; communication skills; students’ attitudes; engineers; employers’ demands
Hrčak ID:
219662
URI
Publication date:
10.7.2018.
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