Architecture Students’ Employability Abilities

“The only skill that will be important in the 21st century is the skill of learning new skills. Everything else will become obsolete over time.” Peter Drucker

Introduction:

The architectural profession is a dynamic and multidisciplinary career. It is one of the most important professions in a country’s development. AE is unique in various ways. Unlike other disciplines, architectural courses are typically hands-on, with students faced with projects and assignments that mirror real-world projects. Furthermore, architecture is one of the most influential professions in our society since it encompasses all aspects that influence how our built environment is conceived, created, and used, hence affecting the user.

As a result, 21st century skills have been incorporated into the national curricula of a wide number of countries, demanding an assessment of the abilities that students should learn. However, research suggests that evaluation of 21st century abilities continues to lag, and most academics agree that present assessment techniques fail to adequately assess 21st century competences. Researchers have particularly noted a lack of a measurement mechanism to assess students’ abilities. According to the authors after Chu et al., employability skills can be categorized into 3 domains; Cognitive, Interpersonal and Intrapersonal.

In order to identify any gaps between the abilities now transferred through AE and the employment market for architecture, engineering, and construction in Egypt, a survey was applied on freshmen and senior students as a sample with the intention of detecting the existing difficulties in integrating the necessary abilities. Table 1 shows the primary skills they acquired in each category of their undergraduate architecture courses in order.

Internal recommendations: are primarily concerned with internal elements affecting the educational environment, such as the teaching process, strategy, applied methods, and learned abilities. The researchers advise following these guidelines:

1. Changing in courses contents: by including more practical consequences and real-life projects in various courses, both theoretical and practical.
2.  Changing acquired skills: by incorporating 21st century skills that were not fully considered in all courses, such as negotiating, empathy, and self-trust.
3.  Applying effective teaching strategies such as Student-Centered Learning (SCL), Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL), Blended Learning, Flipped Learning, Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), Interactive Learning, Game-Based Learning, and Collaborative Learning.
4. Changing the nature of coursework to make it more interactive and student-centered.

External recommendations: are primarily concerned with external variables affecting the teaching environment. In practice, these standards necessitate collaboration between academics and external practitioners. Outdoor activities, site visits, and summer internships are examples. The researchers advise following these guidelines:

1. Increasing the number of the site visits.
2. Carrying out interdisciplinary researches and projects.
3. Organizing academic activities and events (guest lectures/career orientation).
4. Identifying the job market by carrying out periodical AEC market surveys.
5. Increasing internship duration to be one semester instead of few weeks.
6. Organizing workshops in different categories of courses.
7. Collaborating with the industry by activating the industrial liaison committee.
8. Training the trainers and providing Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
9. Exposing students to different cultures by encouraging academic exchange.
10. Fostering conferences participation.