Evaluating the Role of the Communication Skills of Engineering Students on Employability According to the Outcome-Based Education (OBE) Theory

Ying Wu, Lin Xu () and Simon P. Philbin
Additional contact information
Ying Wu: School of Foreign Languages, Northwest University, Xi’an 710069, China
Lin Xu: School of Foreign Languages, Northwest University, Xi’an 710069, China
Simon P. Philbin: School of Engineering, London South Bank University, London SE1 0AA, UK

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-26

Abstract: With the advent of the digital age and Industry 4.0, the communication skills of engineering students has been exerting gradually increasing influence on the need for enhanced student employability. To address this issue, this study evaluates the influence of communication skills on the employability of engineering students from the aspects of verbal and non-verbal skills through the four key elements of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) theory. A total of 130 college engineering students and practitioners participated in the questionnaire survey, and the hypotheses were tested by regression analysis and a structural equation model (SEM). The results show that in the digital age, the verbal ( p < 0.01) and non-verbal ( p < 0.001) components of students’ communication skills play a significant role in the employability of engineering students. Meanwhile, the employer’s assessment simultaneously makes a significant contribution to the further improvement of students’ communication skills, which can help educators further cultivate and improve students’ communication skills through the assessment of their employability by employers. Therefore, this research has theoretical and practical significance, which not only enriches the basic theoretical knowledge, but also broadens the training methods of engineering students in the digital age, thus enhancing their employability.

Keywords: outcome-based education (OBE) theory; communication skills; engineering students; employability; employer’s assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/12/9711/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/12/9711/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:12:p:9711-:d:1173411

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().