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It’s Not Only about Technology, It’s about People: Interpersonal skills as a Part of the IT Education

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Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 49))

Abstract

The importance of what have been termed the “soft skills” for the professional development of IT professionals is beyond any doubt. Taking account of this circumstance, the objective of the current research may be phrased as two separate questions. In the first place, determining the importance which IT related degree students place on these types of competencies for their professional future. In the second place, the importance which the development of the mentioned competencies has been given during their studies. The realization of an empirical study has fulfilled the two objectives described. The results demonstrate, on the one side, the moderate relevance which students assign to interpersonal competencies, especially emotional competencies, in contrast to the international curricular recommendations and studies concerning labor markets. On the other hand, the results indicate the scarce emphasis which lecturers have placed on the development of such competencies.

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Colomo-Palacios, R., Casado-Lumbreras, C., García-Crespo, Á., Gómez-Berbís, J.M. (2009). It’s Not Only about Technology, It’s about People: Interpersonal skills as a Part of the IT Education. In: Lytras, M.D., Ordonez de Pablos, P., Damiani, E., Avison, D., Naeve, A., Horner, D.G. (eds) Best Practices for the Knowledge Society. Knowledge, Learning, Development and Technology for All. WSKS 2009. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 49. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04757-2_25

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04757-2_25

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-04756-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-04757-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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