Soft skills enhanced project-based pedagogy in the community college reflecting apprenticeship and industry need

Abstract Apprenticeship is a way of learning that combines traditional classroom learning and on-the-job training experience. New York City Jobs CEO Council (https://nyjobsceocouncil.org/) provides an apprenticeship program to community colleges in the City University of New York by incorporating businesses and education leaders to establish a bridge between employers' needs and practical job training for community college students. The authors of this paper have participated in the NYC Job CEO Council's Educator Program which provides opportunities to interconnect community college faculty and various employers directly to fill the gap between employers' demands and college teaching. The employers pointed out that new college graduates lack of soft skills including oral and written communication, digital fluency, problem-solving, critical thinking, time management, leadership, and teamwork. These soft skills are also required for students who participate in the apprenticeship program. However, teaching technical knowledge is the general and primary focus of the conventional methods in engineering technology colleges, and teaching soft skills is mostly not included in the curriculum and assessment. Therefore, preparing engineering technology students for apprenticeship and their future career start is essential. The authors learned that project-based pedagogy is an avenue for teaching soft skills to students. Thus, we designed and implemented the project-based pedagogy including soft skill training. In this paper, multiple project-based projects in different disciplines of engineering technology for both in-person and virtual classroom settings are presented including methodologies of teaching soft skills, pedagogical limitations in a community college setting, assessment, and learning outcomes.