Closing the Competency Gaps trough e-Learning: a Case Study for Automotive Industry
Closing the Competency Gaps trough e-Learning: a Case Study for Automotive Industry

Summary/Abstract: In a world of rapid changes, young graduates have to find and fit to jobs that are increasingly complex. As an engineer student today the opportunities are wide, but in specific fields the demands are often very high for them. Many studies have shown a “gap” between the skills or competences of young graduates and the real needs and expectations of employers, the latter being somewhat dissatisfied with the real knowledge and practical abilities of the former. But we consider that there has been not enough practical and specific research done to investigate the real nature of those differences in expectations. We believe that these gaps begin even from the titles of the jobs posted, continuing with the description of the competences needed for fulfilling those jobs and with the selection criteria used by the recruiters. We also state that the expectations of the employers are sometimes too high considering that fresh graduates are at the very beginning of their careers. The objective of our study is to propose a practical model for a concrete analysis of these gaps and we search for alternative practices by e-learning the skills and competences needed for obtaining and performing in a qualified job, embedded in the courses of a technical university, through a case study in automotive field, in Romania. We hence expect to obtain interesting findings about the true nature of the differences on the subject of employability skills of young graduate engineers in terms of specific job descriptions, the skills involved and efficient ways to improve them even during studies.

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