Relative importance of professional practice and engineering management competencies

Type of content
Journal Article
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
University of Canterbury. Mechanical Engineering
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2016
Authors
Pons, D.
Abstract

The professional practice of engineering always involves engineering management, but it is difficult to know what specifically to include in the undergraduate curriculum. Approach- The population of New Zealand practising engineers was surveyed to determine the importance they placed on specific professional practice and engineering management competencies. Findings- Results show that Communication and Project planning were the two most important topics, followed by others as identified. The context in which practitioners use communication skills was found to be primarily with project management, with secondary contexts identified. The necessity for engineers to develop the ability to use multiple soft skills in an integrative manner is strongly supported by the data. Originality- This paper is one of only a few large-scale surveys of practising engineers to have explored the soft-skill attributes. It makes a didactic contribution of providing a ranked list of topics which can be used for designing the curriculum and prioritising teaching effort, which has not previously been achieved. It yields the new insight that combinations of topics are sometimes more important than individual topics.

Description
Citation
Pons, D. (2016) Relative importance of professional practice and engineering management competencies. European Journal of Engineering Education, (early access onine).
Keywords
engineering management, professional practice, graduate attributes, Washington Accord, project management, curriculum, syllabus, communication
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Field of Research::13 - Education::1302 - Curriculum and Pedagogy::130212 - Science, Technology and Engineering Curriculum and Pedagogy
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