The importance of transferable skills according to Finnish first-year engineering students, university staff, and technology companies

We examined the views of first-year students (N = 102), university staff (N = 46), and company representatives (N = 15) concerning the importance of and attitudes towards transferable skills in engineering. Data were gathered from a questionnaire, and statistical methods were utilized in the analysis. The groups shared similar views concerning the order of importance of transferable skills: critical thinking was evaluated as important, whereas awareness of political and social issues was ranked with low figures. Statistically significant differences were absent between students and university staff, but company representatives rated 12 of 38 skills as lower importance. The groups had positive attitudes towards learning and assessing transferable skills, but significant differences emerged in views concerning the importance of these in comparison to technical academic knowledge/skills, developing these in extra-curricular activities, and giving credits for developing these. We suggest that companies’ views be considered when integrating transferable skills into curricula.