Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development ...

ENGINEERING CAPACITY: EDUCATION, TRAINING AND MOBILITYA history of mobilityThe Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, founded inFrance in 1747, has archives from different active periodsof development and innovation followed often by longperiods of conservatism and stagnation. The vision of the‘managers’ of the institution during the more progressiveperiods is very interesting and most of their efforts wereput on key issues:■■■■■■open, interactive learning approaches or methods(avoiding rigid traditional courses);emphasis on the work of the students or youngengineers (projects, site realizations);making young people aware of a broad competitiveenvironment (learning from the experience of others);offering some students the opportunity to travel abroadfor periods of at least six months (this was developedsince the last decades of the eighteenth century), withsome ‘business intelligence’ work to complete;creating tools for the dissemination of ideas andprojects, pushing also the engineers to publish in somenew specialized journals;developing a strong experimental use of newinformation technologies (lithography, photography)■■for facilitating the transfer of knowledge among theengineering community;strengthening the links with partner institutions, alsowith scientific and engineering academics and withcompanies;promoting the learning of foreign languages and invitingforeign experts to deliver courses.These archives show a real and strong vision of what a‘mobile’ engineer might be, of what should be developed as‘mobile’ behaviours and competencies over a long periodof time. Analysing the results of such policies (what theeducated and trained engineers became and did for society),there are no apparent reasons to reject such progressiveideas. However, these ideas were fought, even by somewell-known scientists (for instance in France, by a group of‘positivist’ engineers during the period 1820–1850), andoften these conservative trends imposed their law withsome very rigid approaches of education:■■multiplication of specialized courses (the ‘contentapproach’ to education);compulsory courses, with control of the effectivepresence of the students;■■■■poor evaluation methods (so that exams were easy toorganize);imposing the same programme on every studentwhatever their route or origin;limiting the periods abroad for students (a lack of timefor training them);creation of rigid teaching materials.More recently, after May 1968, a lot of new perspectiveswere opened. Thus in France (but also in many Europeancountries as well as in the United States), many pedagogicalinnovations were stimulated. The key words ofthe innovations were ‘flexibility’ and ‘mobility’. It becameobvious that engineers (especially young engineers) shouldbe prepared for a more open professional life. Continuingeducation (lifelong education) started to emerge as a keyissue. Active learning methods were encouraged. Flexiblecourses were proposed with many choices among variouspossibilities. Joint courses or programmes were establishedand proposed to students. Some engineering schoolsstarted to propose double diplomas and integratedcourses. And it became obvious that it was important toencourage young professionals to have experiences abroadto learn from different cultural perspectives.than the process or the outputs, and where evaluation andrecognition of real competences are at the heart of manyinternational debates.■ sustainability and sustainable development are central,especially when considering issues of climate change and theneeds of a growing population, where – in the evolution ofengineering activities and education – sustainability meansthinking and acting with a long term view, within an integratedmultidisciplinary approach, and with a global analysisof impacts, interdependence and interconnectedness.Emphasis might also be put on ethics, poverty reduction, thedevelopment of the biosciences and biotechnologies, thestrengthening of legal constraints, and considerations of terrorismand global security. All these change factors oblige engineersand engineering educators to have another look at theirprofession, at their career and at their professional behaviour– and even in their roles as citizens.In Europe, specific issues can be mentioned, which have alsoled to more flexibility and mobility: the enlargement of theEuropean Union with the participation of countries fromthe Eastern Bloc; the single European currency; and the variousnational policies that affect the evolution of global andharmonized perspectives. Note that for a long time ‘ Europe’did not exist except as a juxtaposition of nations jealous oftheir autonomy. Everything was, and still remains, complex inEurope due the huge diversity of policies and practices, whichobviously affected higher education as well.Looking at engineering education more closely, the crucialissue of attracting students is an important change factor. Willsociety have adequate engineers for the future? And what newideas or resources are there to improve the recruitment ofengineering students?There are other aspects of the Bologna Process that could bementioned (competency evaluation and recognition; lifelonglearning; the development of a European Research Area), butsuffice to say that it certainly forced governments, administrations,academic institutions, professional bodies and employersto re-think and re-define, together, their approaches in thefield of higher education. It is an important step towards amore flexible and legible education system that offers increasedmobility of people. This European effort for convergence andharmonization is generating interest in other regions that arealso working on reforms of their higher education policies. Thetools set up in the context of the Bologna Process could alsobe adapted and used in other continents, particularly in thefield of engineering education.359