Context:

There is currently a high demand of professionals with highly developed soft skills, but there is no clarity about which ones. The purpose of this article is to determine which soft skills are required at different organizational levels in the mechanical engineering sector.

Method:

A survey was designed and applied to 81 mechanical engineers graduated from Universidad de Pamplona. The instrument evaluated the level of development of 10 soft skills in the undergraduate program, in addition to the level required for an entry-level job as well as for a technical and an executive position. The statistical tools employed were the bilateral Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, the median, the mode, a Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA, and a Games-Howell post hoc test.

Results:

The training level regarding soft skills was found to be aceptable (Me=3), specifically for creativity, negotiation, and nonverbal communication skills, while those related to presenting before audiences, critical thinking, recognition, responsibility, integrity, and humility show greater development (good, Me=4). On the other hand, report writing, emotional competencies, and critical thinking are the most important skills (Me=5) for an entry-level job. To ascend to technical positions, those related to presenting before different audiences, the recognition of team members, and leadership are required. For managerial positions, nonverbal language, negotiation, supervision, and entrepreneurship skills are also required (Me=5).

Conclusions:

Written communication, emotional competencies, and critical thinking should be bolstered in order to provide alumni with higher competitiveness. As for technical and managerial positions, a higher development of the ten analyzed soft skills is needed. Undergraduate and graduate programs should include these new business requirements in their curricula in order to increase the competitiveness of their alumni.

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