I think the “system” is designed to prepare incoming engineers to effectively contribute to the industry early on. By emphasizing on technical skills, young engineers can somewhat integrate in a rather technically-intense environment that will be forgiving to those who have more interpersonal skills than technical. The way I see it, positions in the engineering industry that require strong interpersonal skills, such as project managers and sales engineers, still require that strong technical background in order to be effective in their roles. With this, it makes sense to engineers should have more technical skills when entering the industry, and improve on their interpersonal skills further down the line if they wish to seek less technical positions later on.