Ensuring technical competency has traditionally
been at the centre of engineering pedagogy in university
education, however with ever more increasing emphasis on
the need for professional skills by accreditation bodies and
employers, there have been pressures on the education
system to address this. Communication and teamwork
competencies have been shown to be the most highly
coveted by employers and in 2014, the Integrated
Engineering Programme (IEP) at UCL was designed to
address the inclusion of professional skills development in
the curriculum in the first year of undergraduate studies.
However, what is not clear is whether these skills are
transferred into 2nd and 3rd year. This study investigated this
by interviewing members of staff in Biochemical
Engineering responsible for modules where these skills
form part of the learning outcomes. The results indicate that
whilst there is a general consensus that presentation skills
are well developed, issues still arise in 2nd and 3rd year with
teamwork skills and possible contributing factors could be
related to a lack of awareness of suitable team formation
strategies. Further findings included changes in students’
perception of skills-based teaching as well as the need for
sharing of best practice among IEP-related and non-IEP
related staff alike
