Engineers Soft Skills in the 4th Industrial Revolution: Perspectives of Employers in Morocco

Abstract

Abstract:

During the last few decades and especially in the late 21st century, the world has witnessed significant changes in different domains of life, including higher education and the job market. This perennially fast-changing world necessitates tertiary education institutions to swiftly calibrate up-to-date strategies and promote students’ skills, notably soft skills. As a result, there is an urgent need to expand and bring diversity to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) workforce in Morocco and to the needs of society. The objective of this paper is to identify the overall evaluation and satisfaction with the performance of engineers at the level of soft skills.  Against this backdrop, the study opted for a mixed-method approach for data collection and data analysis. The main research instruments used are the questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The target population of this study comprised 20 employers. Their views were essential for the needs analysis research because they could mirror their experiences in the job market. The findings of the study strongly endorse that there is a mismatch between engineering students’ skills and those required in the workplace. Many challenges have been faced during the different phases of conducting this research. One would mention the acute shortage of references about soft skills in Morocco and the fact that it required much time and energy to build literature.

Keywords: Soft skills, Graduate skills gap, 4^th industrial revolution, Employability

JEL Classification: L51, L60, O15

Paper type: Empirical research