Measuring social skill levels in engineering students: Results show that there is still much to be done

Abstract

Social skills are one of the greatest challenges within the academic training of university students, whose objective is to consolidate professional skills from a technical, social and human value-added approach that will increase work performance in the future. The objective was to determine the levels of social skills in Chemical Engineering students at a National University located in Lima, Peru. The methodology presented a quantitative, descriptive level, non-experimental design and cross-sectional approach. The population was formed by 63 chemical engineering students, to whom the test called "Escala de Habilidades Sociales (EHS)" was applied, which consists of 33 items. At a general level, it was found that only 21% of the sample obtained showed high levels of social skills, in terms of the factors analysed: selfexpression in social situations, defense of one's rights as a consumer, expression of anger or disagreement, saying no and cutting off interactions, making requests, and initiating positive interactions with the opposite sex; it was found that there are high levels in 14%, 13%, 32%, 43%, 0% and 24% respectively, being very notable the fact that making requests is an attribute that is not developed in students of chemical engineering of a national university located in Lima, Peru.