Developing Soft Skills in Engineering Studies - The Experience of Students’ Personal Portfolio

We present and analyse a work experience, now in its fifth year, to help students in developing soft skills, through execution and reporting, during a period of six semesters, of extra-curricular activities that are validated and evaluated by the faculty and, in a certain way, integrated in the curriculum throughout in the form of a ‘Personal Portfolio.’ The global objective of the Personal Portfolio is to develop the student’s soft skills through the practice of extra-curricular activities and the reflection on that practice. In this paper we clarify the initial design of the learning environment, the objectives and regulation of Personal Portfolio, the information system that supports the activities and the evolution of students’ numbers and of the faculty. We comment on the major activities that have been developed, the main results obtained, the differences between the experiences in two campuses and the evolution of the Portfolio concept resulting from the adoption of the Bologna Agreement.