Tutorsystem Garching (Grundlagen Soft Skills)

The Center of Key Competencies aims to enhance the social competence of students at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. The offered courses deal with topics such as communication, conflict resolution, team and project work, presentation, moderation and leadership. In interactive workshops and through reflection, students can train their social, methodological and personal skills. The courses are based on the principle of complementary teaching. This is understood to mean the teaching of engineering science content combined with soft skills. The courses in the 1st semester will be workshops (15 freshmen each).
The second part of the module focuses on project work in a team. These are the same teams from the workshop semester. The project task will be announced during the lecture "Principles of Engineering Design and Production Systems" . The teams have the opportunity to work in a "creative workshop" set up by the Centre for Social Competence and Management Training. The student groups act completely independently, but are accompanied by soft skills tutors and the ZSK staff in an advisory capacity and have the opportunity to take advantage of "mini-workshops" that promote creativity and teamwork. At the end of the concept phase, the project task includes a poster inspection (the contents of the poster represent a partial examination of the GEP module) from which the 15 best can be constructed in workshops of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. The one-year program ends with a large presentation of the products in front of all Tutees, jury members and the press, where the best three ideas will receive prizes.

After participating in the Tutor System Garching, the student will be able to understand and apply various theories and models in the field of soft skills based on solid psychological and social science knowledge.
In addition, the practical application of soft skills will be deepened within the framework of a project. Acquired knowledge will be continued in teamwork where situations will be reflected, analyzed and evaluated. Creativity techniques are used in the joint development of solution strategies (interpersonal for conflict resolution as well as task-oriented in the product development process).

An awareness of areas of competence beyond professional competence would already be recommendable for the transition from school to study. An understanding of terms such as soft skills, key competencies, lifelong learning etc. is to your advantage.
Participation in the project semester requires prior participation in the workshop semester.

The Tutee workshops in the workshop semester are held by soft skills tutors who have previously been trained for this job. All sessions are conducted with activating methods. In addition to short theory inputs, seminar exercises will be carried out and insights will be reflected. The tutor is responsible for moderation. Starting in the summer semester a ZSK Wiki (Soft Skills Wiki) will be introduced to provide further literature and videos.
The solution of the task in the project semester is independently organized by the groups. In a room designed and equipped for this purpose (so-called "creative workshop"), up to three groups can hold meetings on different media (smartboard, flipchart, etc.) and work out their ideas with various LEGO components and LEGO mindstorms. All groups will be accompanied by their caregivers (tutor and coordinator from the workshop semester).

Flipchart, pinboard, smartboard use in the workshops. Powerpoint and Prezi presentations for small and large groups. E-Learning tasks (Moodle).

Handouts (made by the Center of Key Competencies)

In the workshop semester: compulsory attendance and active participation in the Soft Skills Workshops as well as the development and presentation of a Lessons Learned Mindmap as a team task. In the project semester: Attendance at project meetings including minutes of the meeting. Participation in an accompanying workshop (Tuteeworkshop on presentation/creativity etc.). Presentation of the concept as part of an "inspection" (or in the case of the best 15 groups plus construction of the idea and presentation to the jury). The remaining groups must be present on the day of the competition). You also need to write a final reflection report.