An ASME SmartBrief article by Cathy Cecere titled “What Engineers Learn Doesn’t Always Match What Employers Need” presented the findings of an engineering education team in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The team examined over 26,000 job descriptions for engineering positions, with almost 20% being positions for mechanical engineers. Their findings supported what has been vigorously debated by those in academia and those in professional practice, that is, that what typical engineering curricula provide is not what those recruiting engineers would like to see in a potential employee.
The conclusion of the research is valid, however I think the research doesn’t completely explain why engineering curricula are the way they are, and why the soft skills industry would like to see, like team building and problem solving would be nice to include, however there are restrictions.
Probably the primary non-negotiable restrictions deals with the required courses that must be included to meet ABET Accreditation. I’ve been through the ABET Accreditation process and the reviewers are very strict in making sure curricula meet the required specifications. And no engineering department wants, or more importantly, can afford, to lose their ABET Accreditation.
And while not a non-negotiable restriction, there is usually a set number of semester hours that can be in BS degree at a particular institution, typically 120 hours. If you added just one course in what would be called soft skills, what current course would you drop? Yes, you could drop or substitute a non-engineering course, but that could be met with troublesome disagreements within a university. (This is a more vigorously debated topic than you might think.) And I think it would be a disservice to our graduates to drop any of the current core engineering courses as very few people could learn the material in these courses “on-the-job”.
This is an interesting debate which may never find a resolution. However, if those in academia and those in professional practice keep communication channels open, our graduates will receive the best of both worlds. – Dr Tom
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