A Study on the Key Soft Skills for Successful Participation of Students in Multinational Engineering Education

Abstract

Soft-skills have proved to be a necessary complement to technical skills in today’s multinational workplaces. As
universities are facing the challenge of promoting internationalization and mobility in students and teachers, they have
to decide how to help their students in developing these skills as well as increase their awareness on the cultural differences
in multinational settings. After a long trajectory of participation in multinational educational experiences, the authors
launched a survey to check if their previous findings on the preferred soft skills by educational experts and managers still
remain valid after 5 years. Another goal of the study was the analysis of the link between preference for specific soft skills
and cultural background in each country as characterized by Hofstede’s indicators. The data collected from 123 experts
from 45 different countries have confirmed the existence of a stable core set of preferred soft skills at global level and also for
European countries. Results have also shown links between specific cultural indicators and preference for some soft skills.

Full text

A study on the key soft skills for successful participation of students in multinational engineering
education
Luis Fernández-Sanz1, Maria Teresa Villaba2, José Amelio Medina1 and Sanjay Misra3
1Computer Science Department. University of Alcalá. Edificio Politécnico. Campus Universitario. Ctra
Barcelona km 33.6. Alcalá de Henares. Madrid. Spain, E-mail: luis.fernandezs@uah.es,
josea.medina@uah.es
2Department of Computer Science, Universidad Europea de Madrid, C/Tajo s/n, 28673 Villaviciosa de
Odón, Madrid (Spain). E-mail: maite.villalba@universidadeuropea.es
3Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, 112212,
Nigeria. E-mail: ssopam@gmail.com
Abstract
Soft-skills have proved to be a necessary complement to technical skills in today´s multinational
workplaces. As universities are facing the challenge of promoting internationalization and mobility in
students and teachers, they have to decide how to help their students in developing these skills as well as
increase their awareness on the cultural differences in multinational settings. After a long trajectory of
participation in multinational educational experiences, the authors launched a survey to check if their
previous findings on the preferred soft skills by educational experts and managers still remain valid after 5
years. Another goal of the study was the analysis of the link between preference for specific soft skills and
cultural background in each country as characterized by Hofstede’s indicators. The data collected from 123
experts from 45 different countries have confirmed the existence of a stable core set of preferred soft skills
at global level and also for European countries. Results have also shown links between specific cultural
indicators and preference for some soft skills.
Key words: soft skills, student mobility, international education, Hofstede, multinational experiences
1. Introduction
Globalization is deeply impacting the way we work in businesses as well as in profession and therefore in
the skills students need to acquire to show a good performance in multinational teams. Soft skills have burst
into the set of requirements for jobs which employers now demand from candidates [1] [2]. Several studies
have highlighted the need of a good balance between technical competences and non-technical skills when
recruiting professionals in the area of Information Technology (IT) [3] [4] [5] [6]. The non-technical skills
also known as soft skills will largely determine the success of these future professionals. So it is also
necessary that universities help students to develop these capabilities. But, which of these non-technical
skills are the most important to successfully work in a multinational and multicultural environment?
Existing literature does not provide a reasonable answer for this question due to the lack of studies supported
by empirical evidences. It is frequent to find studies where the multinational experiences are an opportunity
for developing some soft skills (e.g. [7][8]) but it is very difficult to locate specific studies which analyze
which are the soft skills required for a successful academic or professional performance in multinational
projects or settings: some works in the area relate soft skills demanded by employers with the possibility
of developing them through international experiences (e.g. [9]). This absence of information might clearly
hinder the promotion of effective international mobility in IT and other engineering branches.
Obviously the European Higher Education Area is a privileged playground for studying students’ mobility
because fortunately many different options for international experiences were implemented many years ago
in the European Union. These are currently helping students to experience multinational situations,
especially in mobility across European countries. Erasmus programme created by the European
Commission is a cooperation and mobility program in higher education aimed at enhancing students and
teachers’ mobility in Europe while promoting intercultural understanding through co-operation of the
different countries. By far, it is the most known option by students, teachers and even society in general in
Europe. The Erasmus programme offers university students the possibility to travel to another European
country to study and do work placements (traineeships). A key factor is that these periods abroad contribute
to qualifications at home through the recognition of credits in the corresponding degree. Of course, it also
helps students get to know different cultures and languages as well as acquire live experience for their
professional and personal development.

Erasmus concentrates really big numbers because millions of students have lived by the end of 2014 what
one of these Erasmus periods (from 3 to 12 months) represents. So it is a reality that funding from EU
Erasmus programme has helped many students to study abroad during a semester or a year. Statistics [10]
show impressive figures: 212,208 students in academic year 2013-14 (last available statistics) studying
abroad plus 60,289 doing traineeships (placements) on other country (they were 144,037 in 2004-05)
totaling more than 3,3 million during the whole history of Erasmus: 22,79% of the them in engineering,
mathematics and computing fields. Now the Erasmus programme has been upgraded to Erasmus+: the new
Erasmus+ is an aggregation of former programmes related to internationalization of educations like
Leonardo, Erasmus, etc. This is only a change pursuing a simplified centralized administration. Most recent
official statistics for 2014 mobility figures of Erasmus+ [11] register a total of 515,178 including modalities
for youth and VET students and staff.
Given these remarkable numbers determining the role of soft skills in the success of mobility programs
deserves the upmost attention to optimize results. Although our work focuses on the analysis of mobility
involving any country in the world, we will also extract specific conclusions for the case of Europe.
Moreover, another source of motivation for this work has been our direct observation during different
international European experiences with students and teachers in the area of Information Technology and
Engineering carried out from 2005 to the present. These experiences included several EU funded programs:
two Erasmus IP (Intensive Programs) with structure of professional workshops with 6 editions in total and
more than 300 people involved, an annual international seminar from 2006 with more than 200 participants,
7 European research projects and long experience in exchange programs of students and teachers. Some
partial results on these experiences have been published in [12].
Our observations suggested us that people from each country allocates a different weight to each of these
non-technical skills when analyzing and evaluating behavior of students and young professionals. For
example, teachers from some countries consider strict punctuality as an essential behavior while those from
other countries consider it as something desirable but less important than other skills as teamwork and
orientations to results. Starting from this fact, we wondered whether it is possible to determine a set of soft
skills commonly recognized in most countries as key factors for success, as well as determining which
could be the difference in perceptions in different countries: this would enable to train students to be aware
of that, and to be able to adapt their behavior and minds to those situations minimizing cultural influences.
In the end, as a second step this could enable specific training for students to successfully perform in any
multinational experience regardless of the country of destination or the origin of the members of the
working group. Knowing this minimum soft-skills would be an important starting point for universities,
who could help their students (and teachers) in developing them prior to any multicultural experience, thus
increasing satisfaction and promoting their participation in international experiences.
2. Antecedents
The basis we adopted to test this hypothesis is a study developed by using the Delphi technique with 70
experts in recruitment of leading companies from different sectors in Spain [13]: the experts started from a
large list of skills detected in job ads which was refined to allow a final selection of the most important
ones for employability (not specifically thinking in international settings). The result of the study was a set
of the 10 most important soft-skills for the success of graduate professionals regardless of their specific
degree or professional area. We preferred to work with this set due to two reasons. One was that in early
years like 2005 there were not so many other reference sets of skills and in our present study we wanted to
check consistency of findings regarding our previous pilot study. The other motivation was checking how
a set of skills not explicitly created by thinking in international situations behaves in our study. We preferred
not adding specific skills clearly connected to international activity to avoid a bias in responses (although
allowing free text suggestions in our survey design to reflect more skills than the ones in the initial set). Of
course, there are other recommended set of soft skills (see e.g. [1][14]) but the differences are not too
relevant as all they share some skills choices with the same name and concept (e.g teamwork, flexibility,
initiative, communication) and many others with different names but referring to the same idea. Even the
comparison with the well-known references of ABET [15] and CDIO [16] does not lead to relevant
deficiencies: ABET only has clear reference to communication, multidisciplinary team, ethics, impact of
solutions in context, etc. while CDIO adds other skills, some included in our set and a few not.

Before further exploring the idea we tried to check if our observations during international experiences
were consistent to the opinion of actors involved in them. A first pilot study in 2010 with a small group of
participants allowed us to check their opinion and compare the results from 23 students from 6 different
European countries who participated in 2 international and multicultural experiences held in Sweden (2006)
and Spain (2008). We also check the opinion of a small set of 5 teachers. Both groups were asked to rank
the importance of skills to be successful in those multicultural experiences. The results (rank 1 means the
most relevant skill) showed that perception from students and from teachers is not exactly the same as it is
shown in Table 1 although specific points are similar.
Table 1. Results from pilot study with students and teachers.
Skill
Students’ rank
Teachers’ rank
Responsibility
4
2
Self-confidence
7
6
Awareness of ethics
4
8
Communication skills as receiver
1
3
Communication skills as sender
2
4
Flexibility
5
4
Teamwork
3
1
Initiative
6
5
Planning ability
5
7
Innovation/creativity
8
9
An additional point was that 42% of students did not think they have good level of development of their
soft skills when they evaluate themselves their starting situation before the experiences. Moreover, they
thought in 94.3% of the cases (pairs student-skill) that the corresponding skills on the mentioned reference
set were essential for the international experiences. Students are aware of the importance of soft skills and
the gaps that may hinder their participation in international experiences.
After these results, we concentrated in teachers and experts as they are in the end very relevant players in
evaluating students and young professionals. We launch another pilot study carried out in 2011 using
questionnaires to determine a first ranking of skills collecting opinion from 66 experts from 21 different
European countries (including Switzerland and Turkey) and different branches of engineering (with a
majority from the area of IT, Information Technology): Civil Engineering, Electronics,
Informatics/Computing engineering (IT), Telecommunication engineering and other areas. Experts were
selected because they have some experience (average international experience was 6.37 years) in
international activity such as:
 Coordination of international relations for exchange programs (students, teachers, etc.): 27.8% of
cases
 Coordination of researchers or teachers from at least two countries in projects with significant in
site joint activities: 16,5% of respondents
 Teaching semester/year degree/regular courses for groups of students of, at least, two nationalities:
21,85% of respondents
 Teaching intensive courses/seminars to groups of students of, at least, two nationalities: 16,5%
 Working in professional industry/company projects in multinational environments with direct
contact with people from at least two countries: 17,2% of cases
They were invited to respond to a questionnaire inspired in the results of our work and previous experience:
they had to select the 5 most relevant soft skills for success in multinational settings. The analysis of results
of this study confirmed evident differences depending on the country origin of the expert, but also show
the existence of set of common most important qualities as shown in Table 3. It is also clear that differences
in the selection for students and for young professionals are not important although there are a few cases
with a wider difference: namely teamwork and self-confidence (more relevant for students) while
communications as information sender, initiative and planning capacity (more import for professionals).

These results also helped us to determine if respondents feel that important skills were missing in the list
as we requested suggestions for adding skills. Only 8 people suggested additional skills like leadership and
networking capacity as well as other options which could not be considered soft skills such as motivation
or specific foreign languages.
The analysis of results also suggested a first relationship between selected skills and country of the
respondent. However, as this first study was not oriented to check this possible relationship in a formal and
scientific way, the data structure only recommended the determination of the preferred skills. After some
years, during 2016 we have exploited the opportunity to launch a new survey to check several hypotheses
with a wider sample and a better survey design given by our set of international contacts. We have continued
asking the experts as main source for the importance of each soft skill as they are in the end those who
decide on the performance of students or young professionals when involved in international experience.
Table 2. Skills for students and for young professionals in multinational settings from pilot study with
experts
SOFT-SKILLS
STUDENTS
PROFESSIONAL
TEAMWORK
74,24%
65,15%
RESPONSIBILITY
69,70%
66,67%
COMMUNICATION SKILLS; SENDER
53,03%
60,61%
COMMUNICATION SKILLS; RECEIVER
62,12%
66,67%
FLEXIBILITY
59,09%
60,61%
INITIATIVE
36,36%
48,42%
SELF-CONFIDENCE
42,42%
25,76%
PLANNING ABILITY
28,79%
34,85%
AWARENESS OF ETHICS
27,27%
31,82%
INNOVATION/CREATIVITY
36,36%
36,36%
The sample of respondents was not balanced in branches of engineering as the majority of them (48%)
belong to the IT/Computing field while the rest was distributed among electronics, civil engineering and a
set of other branches with small figures of respondents. This was the reason for not trying to analyze the
differences among branches although we detected small differences in our previous studies of demanded
skills in the national labor market [17].
The aim of this paper is to show the findings of a quantitative study with a larger sample to check and
extrapolate the results from this first study. As a consequence, we have designed a new questionnaire based
on the previous experiences with a first expanded part devoted to demographics, a main section with
multiple-item questions inspired in our previous work using five-point Likert-type scale and a final free
space for suggestions and comments. The goal is to collect information from a large enough sample to reach
relevant conclusions. The target group will follow the same profile: experts with relevant teaching,
academic exchange management or professional projects with multinational groups (from at least two
different nationalities and a significant number of persons). This larger sample will allow detecting possible
differences in results in the different knowledge areas, experience of the expert, country, etc. The
confirmation of a common set of most important soft-skills for most countries will help in guiding the
training of students for an effective international mobility.
There is an additional goal: the possibility of analyzing the relationship between country culture and the
preference of experts regarding soft skills. The basis for this analysis is the 5 culture dimensions proposed
by Hofstede [18]. Although there is not a direct relationship between Hofstede’s indicators and soft skills,
some studies suggest some specific links (e.g. [19]): for example, the inverse link between value of
dimension “Individualism Versus Collectivism” (IDV: degree to which people in a society are integrated
into groups) to performance in teamwork. In this work we want to analyze if the consideration of specific
soft skills for their ideal profile for students in mobility or professional experiences is influenced by cultural
background of each expert as expressed in Hofstede indicators. Detecting these relationships will allow a
better knowledge on what behavior one can expect in teammates as well as the possible bias in evaluation
from managers and teachers in each country. In fact, we detected through questionnaires and direct feedback
in the multinational experiences described above that teachers tend to be less flexible and with more
prejudices than their students towards students from other countries. Understanding the expectations of

teachers and managers from other countries regarding soft skills is a key factor for increasing participation
in mobility: it is also relevant for helping students to be more effective and get more satisfied of it. We
confirmed this fact by using questionnaires to evaluate different aspects of activities after the intensive
multinational experiences described above. We found out that participating students were more inclined
(87%) to participate in further longer experiences abroad as students or as professionals. This effect was
higher in those who increased their understanding of other countries’ people and at the same time expressed
a higher level of satisfaction with the experience.
3. Research methodology
The aim of this study is to know the most important soft skills according to experts as well as if there are
any influence in the importance given to each soft skill depending on the nationality of the expert. Data
collected in the survey will be combined with the Hofstede dimensions to check of country’s culture. Based
on these objectives, the research questions considered are the following ones:
RQ1: Could it be determined a common set of soft skills considered as key factors for success by experts
in charge of multinational groups of students or young professionals?
RQ2 Given the relevance of the European exchange programs, is there a different set of recommended
soft skills for European countries?
RQ3: Is there any relation among specific Hofstede dimensions determined by the country origin and the
soft skills chosen as key elements for success in multicultural settings?
4. Data collection
The survey design obviously addresses the above research questions. The list of soft skills is the same used
in our previous studies to enable comparative analysis. We have used a Likert scale with answer options
ranged from 1 (essential) to 5 (not needed) and also added an open question to allow suggestions of other
important soft skills. Moreover, we included another two questions about the importance of preparing
students to improve their development of the most important soft skills before participating in multinational
eexperiences. The questionnaire has been developed online using Limesurvey and administered to
coordinators of students’ exchange programs, coordinators of researchers and teachers in international
projects, teachers of courses with students of at least two nationalities, and professionals working in projects
in multinational environments.
Survey process captured a total of 123 answers, so the margin of error is 8.8% with a confidence interval
of 95%. The demographic analysis of data shows a well-balanced sample regarding nationalities with a
wide representation of a large number of different countries (45 countries), and unbalanced in gender
(73.98% of male) as usual in the engineering field. The engineering discipline of respondents was
Informatics/Computing engineering (IT) (78%), Telecommunications engineering (5.7%), Civil
Engineering (4.9%), Industrial engineering (4.9%), and Electronics Engineering (4.1%). Regarding the
experience or profile of respondents, the sample is well balanced with good representation of both academy
and industry, as shown in Table 3 (one respondent may have experience in several options).
Table 3. Experience in dealing with multinational environments
Yes
Number
of years
(mean)
Coordinators of students’ exchange programs
35.8%
4.16
Coordinators of researchers/teachers in
multinational projects
43.1%
6.68
Teaching semester/year degree/regular courses for
international groups of students
51.2%
7.49
Teaching intensive courses/seminars to groups of
students of, at least, two nationalities
37.4%
6.50
Working in professional industry/company
projects in multinational environments
53.7%
6.79

Moreover, in order to answer RQ3, we have used data from Hofstede’s dimensions for national culture
(2015 edition) [20]. We used only the Hofstede’s dimensions with some logical relation to the soft skills
considered here: PDI (Power Data Index), IDV (Individualism versus Collectivism), MAS (Masculinity
versus Femininity), UAI (Uncertainty Avoidance Index), and LTO (Long Term Orientation).
5. Data analysis
Factor analysis was carried out to scrutinise the internal structure of the instrument using IBM SPSS
Statistics 21. The fact that the scale was confirmed in the pilot researching above mentioned validates the
content. Nevertheless, we calculated Cronbach alpha coefficients as well as correlations item-total for
variables related to soft skills of students and for professionals in order to confirm the content. Both of the
scales show good values for correlations item-total and Cronbach’s alpha are greater than the minimums
established in 0.3 and 0.7 respectively [21]. Specifically, Cronbach alpha coefficients were 0.830 for
students and 0.833 for professionals showing good values in both cases. Moreover, alpha coefficient does
not improve after the removal of any of the items of the scale so this confirms the internal consistency of
the scale, i.e. every item measures the same concept.
Once the questionnaire was validated, the research questions were tested.
RQ1: Could it be determined a common set of soft skills considered as key factors for success by experts
in charge of multinational groups of students or young professionals?
The analysis of means, medians and modes, as well as frequencies, for students’ scale gives a high
importance to every soft skill except for initiative and innovation/creativity which have a medium
importance (desirable skills). When looking in more detail at the histograms, we find out that respondents
ranked planning ability as the second of least importance: 50.51% of respondents thought that planning
ability is a skill desirable, optional or not needed. As we knew from our previous experiences the difficulty
of finding out the most important skills in multinational settings, we added to the questionnaire a question
to rank the five most important skills. This question allows us a double confirmation firstly by asking the
individual importance of each skill and then by ranking the five most important (avoiding the syndrome of
marking everything as essential). Results the first question in Table 4 are confirmed by the ones in the
second one: the five most important soft skills for students according to experts are responsibility,
communication skills as message sender, teamwork player, communication skills as message receiver, and
self-confidence.
In the case of skills for professional work in multinationals scenarios we observed that all soft skills are
considered essential or highly desirable when examining descriptive statistics. Innovation, initiative,
flexibility and communication skills as message receiver were considered the least important, although data
not allow us to conclude that they are clearly less important than others as the differences in statistics are
not relevant. We analysed the responses on the five most important skills for professional work to confirm
results as well as to get more information. The importance of each skill is confirmed in Table 4. The five
most important soft skills for professionals to perform well in multinational environments are:
responsibility, communication skills as message sender, teamwork player, awareness of ethical behaviour
and planning ability. It is worth highlighting that the 3 most important soft skills for students and
professionals are the same. However, understanding communications (listening) and self-confidence are
are ranked as the following with more importance for students, while awareness of ethical behaviour and
planning ability are considered among the five more important for professional work. Figure 1 shows the
comparative analysis among the more important skills for professionals and students. We can observe that
the greater percentage differences among the most important skills for students and professional are: self-
confidence (16.16 point more important for students), and initiative (12 points more important for
professionals).
Table 4. Ranking of soft skills according to percentage of experts who selected as one of the five
most important
Students
Professionals
Responsibility
63.5%
69.8%
Communication skills as message sender
53.1%
53.1%
Teamwork player
53.1%
47.9%
Communication as message receiver
42.7%
Self confidence
41.7%

Awareness of ethics
42.7%
Planning ability
39.6%
Figure 1. Comparison among students and professional
Differences in experience of experts in multinational environments (coordinators, teachers or managers)
were analysed using descriptive contingency tables and chi-square tests. Results showed no significant
difference among respondents according to their experience as coordinators of students or teachers, teachers
of multinational groups or working in industry/company multinational projects. We can conclude that all
types of experts in terms of experience agreed with the selected skills: this makes even more valuable the
set of skills detected as the most recommended as they are the preferred by all types of experts.
RQ2: Given the relevance of the European exchange programs, is there a different set of recommended
soft skills for European countries?
In the sample 33 European countries were represented and 77 experts from those countries answered the
survey. The exploratory statistical analysis resulted in the fact that every skill was marked as essential or
highly desirable with few differences among them. The determination of the five most important skills for
students in the case of Europe (shown in Table 5) reveal they are similar to the general set for global sample
(see Figure 1) except the last one (self-confidence) which in Europe is replaced by flexibility. For young
professionals, the situation is also very similar to the global set: the first four are the same but the last one
(planning ability) is replaced in Europe by self-confidence.
Table 5. Ranking of the 5 more important soft skills in Europe. Percentage of experts selecting a skill as
one of the five more important
Students
Professionals
Responsibility
63.64%
71.43%
Communication skills as message sender
53.25%
59.74%
Communication skills as message receiver
48.05%
Teamwork player
46.75%
46.75%
Flexibility
45.45%
Awareness of ethics
41.56%
Self-confidence
35.06%
When comparing these data with those obtained in the pilot study, the five most important soft skills for
students are the same (although with a different ranking of importance). Therefore, as the most important
74,24%
69,70%
53,03%
62,12%
59,09%
36,36%
42,42%
28,79%
27,27%
36,36%
65,15%
66,67%
60,61%
66,67%
60,61%
48,42%
25,76%
34,85%
31,82%
36,36%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%120%140%160%
Teamwork
Responsibility
Communication skills as message sender
Communication skills as message receiver
Flexibility
Initiative
Self-confidence
Planning ability
Awareness of ethics
Innovation/creativity
Students Professional

skills have been remained the same over time (at least in the last 5 years), it can be assumed that the set of
recommended soft skills for good performance in multinational settings is:
 Solid as it remains the same after a relevant period of time with different samples so one can be
confident in getting good results when they are used for shaping actions to support mobility
 Dependent on cultural background in each country or area
In the case of skills most important for professional environments, those soft skills are not the same as in
the global set; the three most important are kept (responsibility, communication as message sender and
teamwork player). Maybe the differences among the different professions and companies are influencing
these results, while the work students have to do is more conventional and similar in the different countries
and degrees. The variability of demand of soft skills in the labour market could be another factor impacting
in this aspect.
In the case of European countries, differences in experience of experts (coordinators, teachers or managers)
were also analysed using descriptive contingency tables and chi-square tests. Once again, we can conclude
there is not relevant difference in opinion among them. This adds generalization and soundness to the
results.
RQ3: Is there any relation among specific Hofstede dimensions determined by the country origin and the
soft skills chosen as key elements for success in multicultural settings?
This question is focused on the test of possible relations between the measures of cultural dimensions and
data collected from experts about soft skills recommended for multicultural settings. As explained above,
we explored only relations which theoretical analysis suggests as logical. Not all the countries had available
data for Hofstede’s dimensions, the final number of countries of the sample with data were 33, i.e. the
remaining of the sample are not included in the official current tables of Hofstede’s indicators.
As a first step in analysing these relationships, we have firstly explored the existence of relations between
the dimensions of Hofstede and the soft skills considered as the most important for multicultural settings.
We have calculated the Pearson coefficients once checked the normal distribution for every variable. Table
6 shows the relevant correlations found out for students and professionals.
Table 6. Pearson correlation coefficients between soft skills and Hofstede dimensions
PDI
IDV
MAS
UAI
Students
Communication skills as message
sender
-0.565
Awareness of ethical behaviour
0.411
Teamwork player
0.585
Planning ability
0.538
Professionals
Awareness of ethical behaviour
0.603
Flexibility
0.427
Self confidence
-0.666
Communication skills as message
receiver
0.417
N=33, 0 < r < 1. Note: Only relevant correlations are shown
Obviously as a first step we have analysed which were the logical relations supported by other studies as
well as the check of our previous results. Results from one previous study [19] suggested a logical inverse
relationship between IDV and teamwork and some subtle positive relationship between UAI and flexibility.
Other studies have already identified link between MAS and self-steem [22]. After analysing the definitions
and explanations provided by Hofstede, we completed other pairs of variables to be checked: e.g. inverse
relation between UAI and LTO to planning ability as well as UAI and ethical behaviour.
In order to find out if the combination of several Hofstede dimensions could predict the importance given
by experts to some of the soft skills, we have run multiple regressions analysis. We selected this method
because it allows measuring the contribution of the independent variables (Hofstede’s dimensions) to the
dependent variables (soft skills). Multicollinearity was not found with all VIF (variance inflation factor)

values close to 1 as shown in Table 7. We also run an analysis for each soft skill as dependent variable, and
every Hofstede dimension as predictor. In order to confirm that the relations were no casual, we executed
ANOVA and F-tests. Table 7 and Table 8 summarize the results of the multiple regression analysis showing
only the skills and predictors with p<0.05 in F-test in order to ensure real effects of the independent
variables over the dependents. Regressions have resulted in significant (p<0.05) models with R2 between
0.254 and 0.600.
Table 7. Significant regression results for Professionals
Variables
R2
F
(p<0.05)
Not standardised
coefficients
t
(p<0.05)
VIF
Self-confidence
0.600
6.740
MAS
-0.802
-3.595
1.118
LTO
0.418
1.873
1.118
Awareness of
ethical
behaviour
0.364
6.865
UAI
0.226
2.620
1.000
Communication
as message
receiver
0.302
5.195
MAS
-0.323
-2.279
1.000
Flexibility
0.254
4.247
PDI
0.237
2.363
1.005
N=33
Table 8. Significant regression results for students
Variables
R2
F
(p<0.05)
Not
standardised
coefficients
t
(p<0.05)
VIF
Teamwork players
0.343
5.738
IDV
-0.283
- 2.395
1.000
Planning ability
0.289
5.291
IDV
0.264
2.300
1.000
Communication as message sender
0.342
3.642
PDI
0.280
-1.845
1.390
IDV
0.187
1.643
1.390
Awareness of ethical behaviour
0.230
4.490
UAI
-0.275
-2.119
1.000
N=33 (countries)
6. Discussion
We have firstly analysed the results of regression for professionals. Examination of the significant predictor
variables shows that countries with high masculinity (MAS) and long term orientation (LTO) consider self-
confidence as an important soft skill for professionals in multinational environments. The model explains
a 60% (R2= 0.600) of variance denoting a high level of correlation. One of the most important factors in
developing self-confidence is planning reachable goals, and preparing for the uncertainty [23]. Sweden,
Slovenia and Lithuania are examples of countries with low values in masculinity index, and high in long
term orientation, and so they consider self-confidence as an important soft-skill for working in multinational
environments. Masculinity is also a predictor the preference of the skill of listening (communication as
message receive) predicting a 30.2% of variance. The correlation here is negative; so more cooperative
societies consider important the understanding of the message (listening) to develop well in multinational
professional environments. On the other hand, flexibility is predicted by power distance index (PDI) with
25.4% of variance explained. Countries with high value of PDI accept well hierarchical order which can
influence in the level of flexibility of people or how they consider that flexibility is important. Finally,
uncertainty (UAI) is a predictor of awareness of ethical behaviour with 36.4% and 23% of variance
explained for professionals and students respectively. Societies who do not tolerate well uncertainty, such

as Spain, have rigid codes of beliefs and behaviours, and have low tolerance to unorthodox ideas. This can
explain that these societies consider important ethical behaviours.
Regarding students, in addition to awareness of ethical behaviour, countries with low level of individualism
(IDV), i.e. collectivism countries, consider that team working is somehow important in students for
multinational working with 34.3% of variance explained for this variable. Planning ability is predicted too
by IDV (R2=.289), but this time is a direct relationship. Therefore, countries where people take care of
themselves and their direct family only, consider important planning ability for students when being
involved in multinational settings. Planning ability together to communication are consider skills for
leadership. Communication as message sender is another skill predicted by IDV, along with power distance
index (PDI) with 34.2% of variance predicted. Both IDV and PDI were two initials culture predictors
consider in our hypothesis from out past experiences. The other one, masculinity, in not confirmed as
culture predictor for leadership in this study.
Of course, this study has some limitations. The sample size is varied but still limited and the representation
of the different branches of the engineering shows with a clear bias to IT and computing. The representation
of countries is varied enough but it could still be improved. However, we have shown that the results are
consistent because they remain similar to the ones of our previous studies with a different sample after 5
years. This suggests that conclusions are representing a global and stable trend, adding value to its possible
use for different actions in promotion and improvement of student and graduates mobility.
Another limitation is the use of the limited set of 10 soft skills. Although they were determined by directly
collecting information from employers we are aware that there are larger catalogues of soft skills or ones
explicitly including skills very connected to internationality. However, we repeated the same set of skills
in this study because it was necessary to compare these last results to the ones obtained five years ago. Even
more, there were really few suggestions from experts for adding new skills. We are planning reviewing the
set of soft skills in further works in this area.
7. Conclusions
Mobility is becoming a must rather than just an option for students and graduates pursuing successful career
development. Information coming from our previous multinational experiences motivated us to carry out a
specific study with several goals: determining which set of soft skills is recommended by experts to students
and young graduates willing to work in multinational settings and exploring possible relations between
cultural background and the preference of skills expressed by experts of each country.
The results coming from a sample of 133 experts have confirmed a recommended set of soft skills for both
cases (students and graduates) which has been shown to be stable and global. We have also analysed the
particularization of this set for European countries given the importance of the Erasmus students mobility
programme. Another result is the observation of how the cultural indicators of each country tend to
influence the soft skills selected by the corresponding experts with clear relationships between some
cultural indicators and the preference for specific soft skills. This information could be valuable for many
actors in the process of mobility. For example, students and graduates could be aware of the preference of
experts (teachers, managers, etc.) in the destination country or in multinational teams so they can adapt
themselves to this reality. Another possible consequence could be the creation of specific training programs
for students and graduates before participating in multinational experiences.
We are planning new studies to explore the role of soft skills in students for academic mobility and well as
for young graduates when working abroad. As commented before, these new studies will be guided by the
aim of improving aspects like broadening and amplifying the sample in terms of engineering branches,
number of respondents and new countries, keeping in mind that it is preferable to increase numbers in
countries with availability of Hofstede indicators. Another goal is the review of the set of soft skills to be
used as basis, collecting information preferably from standard sources like catalogues of skills from
international frameworks like the forthcoming ESCO (https://ec.europa.eu/esco/portal/home), the new
European classification of skills and occupations, to be finally published in 2017.
Apart from improving the replication of the studies we are also thinking in additional further work focused
on a comparison of the preferences for skills expressed by students and by experts. This requires the access
to a relevant number of students with experience in mobility, collecting information before and after living

multinational experiences. This study should be complemented by adding questions on their perception of
the usefulness of possible specific training and development of skills oriented to address the multinational
scenarios where they need to live and act.
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Luis Fernández-Sanzis an associate professor at Dept. of Computer Science of University of Alcalá
(UAH). He earned a degree in Computing in 1989 at Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and his
Ph.D. in Computing with a special award at University of the Basque Country in 1997. With more than
20 years of research and teaching experience (at UPM, Universidad Europea de Madrid and UAH), he
has also been engaged in the management of the main Spanish Computing Professionals association
(ATI: www.ati.es) as vice-president and he is chairman of ATI Software Quality group. He has hold the
position of vice-president of CEPIS (Council of European Professional Informatics Societies:
www.cepis.org) from 2011-2013 and from 2016 to the present. His general research interests are software
quality and engineering, accessibility, e-learning and ICT professionalism and education.
María Teresa Villalba, is an associate professor of Computer Science at Universidad Europea (Laureate
International Universities) since 2002. She earned her degree in Mathematics in 1996 and her master' degree
in Computer Science in 1998 from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. In 2009, she received
the Ph.D. in computer Science with special mention to the best dissertation from Universidad de Alcalá,
Madrid. She is postgraduate director and head of the research group of Educational Technology. She is a
member of the Engineering Commission for quality evaluation of undergraduate and graduate degrees at
Fundación Madrid+D. Author of more than 60 presentations at conferences (national and international
publications), books and papers, and researcher in more than 25 research projects in the areas of Educational
Technology and ICT Security.
José Amelio Medina earned a Telecommunications Engineering degree from the University of Alcala ́, an
Official Master in Company Management and PhD on Administration and Business Management from Rey
Juan Carlos University, also holding a degree in Marketing and Market Research. He is now serving as an
Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department of the University of Alcala. Previously, he worked
as a Technical Management Expert (Systems and Information Technology) in the Health Care Service of
Castille-Mancha, Computer Technician in ADAC Association, and as Head of Quality, Environmental
Issues and Computer Services in Tecnivial, SA.
Sanjay Misra, is a Full Professor in Computer(Software) engineering (since Jan 2010) presently serving
in Covenant University, Nigeria. He has 25 years of wide experience in academic administration and
research in universities in Asia, Europe and Africa. His research interest cover the areas of (but not
limited to): Software engineering, project management, quality assurance, HCI, AI, cognitive informatics
and web engineering. He is author of more than 250 papers and got several awards for outstanding
publications. He has delivered more than 60 keynote/invited speeches in international conferences and
institutes in more than 45 countries. He is Series Editor of Advances in IT Personnel and Project
Management (AITPPM), Chief Editor of International Journal of Physical Sciences and Covenant J. of
ICT.