Those working in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields are delivering world-changing solutions to the problems we face and are saving lives every day. Some of them do surgeries, some design airplanes and cars, others study the wildlife around us, and others create processes to facilitate the manufacturing of devices we use often. In order to do this, the engineers, scientists, doctors, and other professionals in STEM disciplines need to possess hard skills. Hard skills are often called technical skills and are measurable abilities and skills that are needed to perform tasks effectively. The tasks done share something in common: they are intended to improve the lives of those around us. Additional examples include the work done to protect us from nuclear threats, the research done during pandemics to find vaccines, and learning about animal in the ecosystem. While the hard skills are important and essential to have, paired with soft skills, we have a more powerful and stronger combination of skills. Soft skills are often called interpersonal skills or people skills. They are related to how we build relationships and interact effectively with others. They enhance our ability to do both technical and nontechnical work. If the work those in STEM disciplines do is intended to help individuals, society, and people, how can we do this effectively if we do not have strong people skills? How are we to improve the lives of individuals through the work we do in STEM if we cannot fully interact effectively with those individuals? This study will explore how participants from STEM disciplines at an educational and industry level rated themselves in their effective use of soft skills and provide suggestions based on their feedback on how we can improve our soft skills.

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Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have challenges with communication, changes in routine, and processing social information and communication that can affect their ability to learn and respond successfully to safety threats. When given behavioral skills training (BST), children with and without ASD have demonstrated gains in safety responding skills. Although the prevalence of ASD has risen, few studies exist on the acquisition of fire safety skills for children with ASD. This study built on current literature by utilizing a multiple probe design across participants to teach a precursor fire safety evacuation procedure using BST. Additionally, it evaluated if the behaviors gained generalize to another environment and maintain over time, as generalization and maintenance are critical for real-world application of the safety skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if an intervention using BST for teaching a precursor fire alarm evacuation procedure was effective for children with ASD in acquiring, maintaining, and generalizing the procedure. The study showed that the BST procedure for teaching precursor fire safety skills was effective for three of four participants. Only 50% of participants demonstrated generalization of skills learned to an alternate location and fire alarm sound, and 75% of participants maintained skills after 4 weeks. According to the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) single-case design standards, the study met standards without reservations and demonstrated moderate evidence of a causal relation.

The focus of this study was a problem identified by human resources directors and managers in a medium sized community in the southeast of the United States. The problem was that some college graduates are not equipped with the necessary soft skills to be successful in the workforce. Executive directors and human resources managers brought this problem to the attention of the career center directors in the community. Goleman's theory of emotional intelligence was the theoretical framework to ground this study. This study involved purposeful sampling to select 9 human resources directors from local companies. To investigate soft skills in college graduates, these 9 human resources directors and managers responded to a semi structured interview with questions focusing on the problem of the study. Once the interviews were transcribed, the information was analyzed by using manual coding and computer-assisted coding. Among the 6 themes that emerged from the data analysis, participants most often pointed out communications as the most important soft skill and the foundation for other skills. From the perspective of human resources directors and managers, soft skills were found to be lacking in some college graduates. There was a consensus among the participants of the study that higher education leaders need to incorporate different approaches to teach skills; therefore, a 24-hour professional development program for faculty was developed as a solution for improving the learning of soft skills of college students. The social change expected from having well-equipped college graduates with soft skills will be more successful professionals with better opportunities to have upward mobility, and more meaningful careers that will benefit their families and their organizations.

<p>Project Management is multidisciplinary in nature; it involves a number of activities and requires the project manager to possess a wide variety of competences. This thesis aims to investigate which competences organizations currently require from project managers. In particular the focus of this research is to examine and contrast the “soft” (interpersonal) and “hard” (technical) competences required by the job market and to find out if organizations recognize the importance of both of them or if they pay special attention to one of them. A total of 50 online job advertisements from different industries and countries were analyzed using content analysis in order to determine what competences are valued by employers. Furthermore, 9 semi-structured interviews were conducted with project management academics and practitioners in order to provide a more in depth study and to allow triangulation between the findings. The results indicate that some competences are more valued than others. Communication, project integration management and scope management are the top three competences required by employers. The results also suggest that employers, academics and practitioners are aware of the need to balance hard and soft competences.</p>

Project Management is multidisciplinary in nature; it involves a number of activities and requires the project manager to possess a wide variety of competences. This thesis aims to investigate which competences organizations currently require from project managers. In particular the focus of this research is to examine and contrast the “soft” (interpersonal) and “hard” (technical) competences required by the job market and to find out if organizations recognize the importance of both of them or if they pay special attention to one of them. A total of 50 online job advertisements from different industries and countries were analyzed using content analysis in order to determine what competences are valued by employers. Furthermore, 9 semi-structured interviews were conducted with project management academics and practitioners in order to provide a more in depth study and to allow triangulation between the findings. The results indicate that some competences are more valued than others. Communication, project integration management and scope management are the top three competences required by employers. The results also suggest that employers, academics and practitioners are aware of the need to balance hard and soft competences.

The purpose of the present study was to prepare a Stress Management Program for the mothers of children with autism and to evaluate the effects of the program on depression, anxiety, and suicidal probability. It was hypothesized that the mothers of children with autism who attended the Stress Management Program would have lower depression, anxiety and suicidal probability whereas there would be no change in the depression, anxiety, and suicidal probability of mothers of children withautism who did not get any treatment. The participants of the study were 44 mothers of children with autism from Uyum Special Education Center and Ilgi Special Education Center. The data were gathered by administering four instruments / Beck Depression Inventory, Back Anxiety Inventory, Suicidal Probability Scale, and Demographic Information Form. Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance Technique was used to analyze the data. The findings of the study indicated that there was a significant decrease in depression levels of mothers of children with autism after the Stress Management Program whereas anxiety and suicidal probability did not change significantly as a function of the Stress Management Program. For the mothers of children with autism who did not get any treatment, it was indicated that there were no difference in depression, anxiety and suicidal probability. The results were discussed within the context of the relevant literature.

This study aims to examine the role of television in rural women&rsquo / s everyday life experiences in terms of information, socialization, identification and entertainment. The focus is on rural women&rsquo / s experiences with a feminist perspective conducting an ethnographic study using the methods of in-depth-interviews, survey, participant observation and group discussions in Topakli village. The findings of the study is the role of television as an information source for rural women and it&rsquo / s role on rural women&rsquo / s socialization process.

In our increasingly digital age, the pace of digital transformation requires continuous learning. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella put it simply when wanting Microsoft to transition from a culture of "know-it-all" to a culture of "learn-it-all". The most valuable commodity for leaders to do is to set an example for lifelong learning and to find opportunities to encourage others to do the same, allowing each employee to take responsibility for skilling up [18]. This study identifies prioritized skills and assesses what skills gaps exist from these. A maturity framework is developed to measure the level of skills within three dimensions “Technical and Digital skills”, “People and organization skills” and “Strategy skills” and is composed of 30 attributes (Table 1). This study uses Sandvik Coromant as a use case for assessing skill gaps and Microsoft as a use case for how to fulfil the gaps. This study contributes to the manufacturing sector by identifying prioritized skills, empirically establishing a maturity framework and providing an evaluation of Sandvik Cormorant’s current skills gap including how to fulfil these skills gaps by programs, tools or initiatives. / I vår alltmer digitala värld kräver takten i digital transformation kontinuerligt lärande. Microsofts vd Satya Nadella uttrycker att Microsoft ska övergå från en kultur av "veta allt" till en kultur av "lära sig allt". Den mest värdefulla tillgången för ledare är att föregå med gott exempel för livslångt lärande och hitta möjligheter att uppmuntra andra att göra detsamma, så att varje anställd kan ta ansvar för kompetensutveckling [18]. Denna studie identifierar prioriterade kompetenser och bedömer vilka kompetensgap som existerar i dessa. Ett mognadsramverk utvecklas för att mäta kompetensnivån inom tre dimensioner ”Tekniska och digitala färdigheter”, ”Människor och organisationsfärdigheter” och “Strategifärdigheter” och består av 30 attribut (tabell 1). Denna studie använder Sandvik Coromant som ett användningsfall för att bedöma kompetensgap och Microsoft som ett användningsfall för hur man ska kunna uppfylla gapen. Denna studie bidrar till tillverkningssektorn genom att identifiera prioriterade färdigheter, empiriskt upprätta ett mognadsramverk och ge en utvärdering av Sandvik Cormorants nuvarande kompetensgap inklusive hur man kan uppfylla dessa kompetensgap genom program, verktyg eller initiativ.