Relevance of technical skills required of two-year electronics program graduates: Students' and teachers' viewpoints

Abstract

Technical skills play a major role in engineering and technology education. Whereas the literature deals with the technical qualifications required of engineering graduates, the research focusing on two-year technology program graduates is limited. Therefore, the study described here investigated the relevance assigned by Israeli students and teachers to the technical skills required of two-year electronics program graduates. Forty-four electronics students and thirteen electronics teachers from a two-year college participated in this mixed-method study. The findings indicate that the relevance assigned by the teachers to technical skills was significantly higher than the relevance assigned by their students. This result could be explained by the current curriculum not putting sufficient emphasis on providing relevant technical qualifications.