Impact of Mentoring and Skills Sessions on Student Professional Preparation

A significant portion of most engineering curricula focuses on developing technical knowledge and skills that students will need after graduation. Skills like time management, leadership, and conflict management may be implicitly included through team design projects, but are less commonly an explicit component of engineering degree coursework. Of these non-technical skills (sometimes referred to as 'soft skills'), professional communication is the most likely to be taught in a dedicated course, often as part of a university's general education curriculum. Both formal research and anecdotal feedback from employers attest to the importance of non-technical skills for the success of engineers in the workplace. However, employers also often report that new graduates lag in the development of these skills compared to their technical competencies. Between the constant expansion of engineering knowledge, credits required for general education programs, and a consistent push from students, parents, and legislators to reduce credits to increase four-year graduation rates, adding credit hours focused on soft skills to engineering curricula is a difficult proposition. A potential alternative is co-curricular programming. For the 2023-2024 academic year, [College] at [University] has implemented a Professional Skills Program which incorporates a series of seminars focused on soft skills with one-on-one mentoring between student participants and engineers from industry. Participants are expected to meet with their mentors at least twice per month and to participate in at least three (out of six) skills sessions over the course of the academic year. Students who complete the program receive a letter of acknowledgement from the dean. To understand the impact of the program on participants' perception of their related skills, the current study presents the results of a survey from the end of the Fall 2023 semester. Qualitative feedback from students participating in the skills program is summarized and common themes identified. Suggestions from students for improving the program for the Spring 2024 semester are discussed and compared with research from similar programs in the literature. Lessons learned related to program development and implementation are discussed.