This study aims to explore the role of digital education in the development of skills and employability for engineering students through researching the role of big data analytics courses. The empirical study proposes the hypothesis that both soft and hard skills have positive effects on human capital, individual attributes, and the career development dimensions of engineering students. This is achieved through constructing a framework of three dimensions of engineering students' employability and two competency development dimensions of big data analytics courses. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 155 college engineering students and a structural equation model (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. The results found that courses on big data analytics have a positive impact on engineering students' abilities in both hard skills (p < 0.01) and soft skills (p < 0.001) dimensions, while soft skills have a more significant impact on engineering students' employability. The study has practical and theoretical implications that further enriches the knowledge base on engineering education and broadens our understanding of the role of digitalization in enhancing the skills and employability of engineering students.
Keywords: big data analytics courses; digital education and training; engineering student employability; hard skills; soft skills.
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