IDENTIFYING KEY REQUIRED SKILLS FOR ENGINEERING GRADUATES

The current study identifies and prioritizes the required skills for engineering graduates entering the job market in Saudi Arabia, within three key competencies areas that have been previously investigated by the authors. The dynamic changes that are taking place in Saudi Arabia foreseeing Vision 2030 objectives, including nationalizing key professions such as engineering have brought a direct impact on the job market employability requirements and the job seekers' competencies and skills preferences, as well as on the higher education system and its exit requirements criteria. Additionally, the competition with foreign-educated Saudi nationals and non-Saudi skilled engineers who have global exposure has created a significant challenge for those who are locally educated and lack the employers' desired level of these competencies and skills. Data information was gathered by directly conducting a survey among differently involved parties such as major national companies, alumni, the Saudi Engineering Council, and professors and lecturers in different engineering academic programs. Key skills were grouped under the previously identified competency categories, namely personal effectiveness, academic, workplace competencies. An analysis of the gathered information allowed the rating of importance of each skill within each competency category from the participants' points of view. The identified skills and competencies can be a useful reference for curriculum designers in order to assign multiple performance indicators when assessing engineering programs and their outcomes. Subsequently, this will allow the identification of supplementary activities that students may take during the course of their undergraduate studies or right after graduation in order to compensate the lack of attainment of these skills and therefore reducing the gap between the desired level of these skills and the actual outcomes level obtained from the academic programs.