The development of transferable skills through continuous improvement: A case study in the UAE

This paper reports on a program of first year and second year study developed at a recently ABET-accredited engineering institute in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to a population of predominantly Emirati students. The program was developed to address the transition needs common to students world-wide but particularly those associated with young adults studying in an additional language and beginning undergraduate study often without the basic preparation expected from secondary education. The design of two first year communications courses was informed by the interests of ABET Criteria 3 and focused on introducing students to research, teamwork, effective communication and life-long learning, with the overall aim of developing language proficiency through the acquisition, internalization and articulation of knowledge. Initial development of the two courses was informed by in-house needs analyses and developed through annual reviews of student performance along with feedback from students themselves and receiving engineering program faculty, concerning strengths and weaknesses of students enrolled in their courses. While no claims are made about finding the `solution´, a continuous improvement process, informed by research, has resulted in a program designed to facilitate the implementation of recommendations made by ABET to prepare engineering students for the twenty first century.