Enhancing Student Engineering, Personal, and Interpersonal Skills Through Yumekobo Projects

The Kanazawa Institute of Technology (KIT) established Yumekobo (the Factory for Dreams and Ideas) in 1993 to give students a place to create things freely and safely in extracurricular activities. Yumekobo has come to impact strongly on domestic and overseas universities promoting educational reform. The Yumekobo project supporting creative student group activities is no longer just a place for extracurricular activities, but has come to symbolize KIT educational philosophy. Students even cite the Yumekobo project as why they apply to be admitted to KIT. The project both improves students’ technical capability and helps develop their personal and interpersonal skills – skills not taught sufficiently in institutions of higher education. The program’s core is developing personal and interpersonal skills through student-led group activities. This paper details and assesses the Yumekobo project and its educational effect based on questionnaires conducted over the last 10 years.