Project Management Training: An Integrative Approach for Strengthening the Soft Skills of Engineering Students

Abstract

The need to rethink project management practices and review how different competences of project managers can be reinforced remains a crucial challenge. This study is intended to explore how soft skills can be measured and strengthened in project management training of engineering students. The purpose is to define and test a valid framework that will help to better design, assess and improve project management training programs. This research has been carried out with 67 engineering students in the role of project managers who lead 456 team members. The main results of this study include the definition of a Soft Skills Index for measurement of soft skills in project management, the assessment of improvements perceived by the students on completion of the training experience and an analysis of the correlation between hard and soft skills.