Future Skills of International Students in Upper Austria – a Survey among Students and Lecturers

Today’s world is constantly changing, and in our globally competitive economy we aim at educating students for their future jobs – despite not knowing exactly what these jobs will look like. Whether talking about “career competencies” (DeFillippi and Arthur 1994), “Future Skills” (Ehlers 2020) or “21st century skills” (Ananiadou and Claro 2009), the question remains: which competences and skills will students need for their future careers?
We asked this question to international students and lecturers in the English-taught study programme „Electrical Engineering“ at Wels Campus, the School Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria (FH OÖ). This poster presents the results of our survey, which we explicitly focused on a very specific group: international engineering students in Austria. What do they think they will need for their future careers on the global or local job market? The survey also explores the opinions of educators, i.e., the students’ lecturers and professors in the programme, and discusses any discrepancy between the students’ own perceptions of relevant skills for their future and their lecturers’ perspectives on student needs. With this focus on international, non-native speakers of the German language, a relevant question to discuss is the role of language skills and intercultural competence in future employability. This poster intends to provide an initial overview on students’ and lecturers’ understanding of relevant skills and competences and is part of a research project on international students’ resources and employability in the context of the local labor market.