Bradley Benhart, MBA
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana,
United States of America
Stephen Austin, MSc., A. Bogdanovic, Dipl.Ing.Arch., Janet Campbell, MEng CEng MICE, and Andy Reid, MSc
Coventry University
Coventry, United Kingdom
This collaborative paper highlights the Soft Skills for Hard Hats project that is a result of a successful bid to the 2016 Call for Erasmus+KA2 – Cooperation for Innovation and Exchange of Good Practices – Strategic Partnerships for Vocational Education and Training funding grant. This project consists of partners from Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Slovenia, Italy, United State of America, and the United Kingdom. Soft skills in construction supervisors has been a growing concern in the European Union. Soft Skills for Hard Hats (SSHH) was in response to that void by creating online, semi-immersive interactive scenarios aimed at first level construction supervisors to help develop soft skills. The focus is on four different soft skills: teamwork, communication, leadership and problem solving. The units are web based vignettes of difficult situations site supervisors are tasked to solve. As the situations evolve, there are pauses for the participants to make management choices. There are multiple paths to solve each situation. Upon completion, participants are provided feedback on how they handled each scenario with short and long term affects. Each unit enables participants to undertake an individualized learning experience based on the choices they make. This paper highlights the concept, framework, scenario outcome maps, examples, assessment, lessons learned and links to the on-line program.
Key words: competencies, soft skills, simulations, experiential learning, scenarios