Scheffer, Leana

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Leana Scheffer is an interdisciplinary lecturer, has a Masters in Interior Architecture by Research and is currently enrolled for a Graduate Diploma in Tertiary Education. She has six years of South African lecturing experience, three terms of New Zealand teaching experience and currently lectures at Inscape Education Group. She has seven years of industry experience, specialising in high-end residential design.

Her research interests include soft skills development and risk-taking behaviour of design students, the interdisciplinary application of urban spatial theories to decode residential interior spaces, spatial phenomenology, neuroscience in the built environment, spatial regionalism, heritage and vernacular design.

Leana Scheffer

SPOT, the 4IR soft skills strategy for South African interior design graduates: An integrative literature review

AuthorInstitution
Scheffer, LeanaInscape Education Group

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Discipline: 

Interior & Furniture Design
SPOT, the 4IR soft skills strategy for South African interior design graduates: An integrative literature review

The 2020 South African Presidential Commission on the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) presented five development pillars for the South African 4IR strategy, with the People and Skills pillar emphasising the role of the education sector in South Africa’s successful global participation in the 4IR. The report identifies a lack of soft skills such as creativity and problem solving in new graduates, adversely affecting their work-preparedness and employability. The World Economic Forum’s 15 top skills for 2025 also placed soft skills as the top six future workplace skills. Tertiary educators have the opportunity and responsibility to prepare graduates for this shift to the 4IR-workplace by developing soft skills relevant to their discipline.

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