Maintworld Magazine 4/2020

EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Industry as well as
academy put emphasis
on other competences
than the core engineering
competencies of today.
This is reflected in
international engineering
education standardization
initiatives such as CDIO
(www.cdio.org) or The
Washington accord.
COMPETENCY
Requirements for
Future Engineers
MIRKA KANS, PhD, Linnaeus University, Department of Mechanical Engineering
WHEN REFERRING TO CORE ENGINEER-
ING competences we typically mean
knowledge in mathematics, natural science
and generic engineering science,
as well as experimental and analytical
abilities. These are tightly connected
to the students’ own learning, i.e., abilities
that the individual student possess
(disciplinary knowledge and reasoning,
and personal and professional skills
and attributes), and that reflects the
traditional way of viewing the engineering
student; someone that is an
expert within a narrow subject area and
that works alone.
In contrast to this, the interpersonal
skills as well as the holistic and systemic
perspectives are, and will become,
more important in the future.
Interpersonal skills are for instance
the ability to work efficiently in teams, as
well as leading and managing interdisciplinary
work. Communication skills are
also important; the engineer should be
able to speak and write and adapt communication
method and style depending
on the context and the audience. This includes
the ability to listen, to discuss, to
argue, and to work with negotiation and
conflict solving. Communication skills
in the native language is important, but
also in other languages (mainly English),
as engineers often work in an international
context today.
The holistic understanding covers
understanding the full life cycle of the
product and system, i.e., knowledge of
how to conceive (conceptualize), design,
implement, and operate products and
systems. In addition, the understanding
of enterprise, societal, and environmental
contexts is also important. The
engineer will affect, and is affected by
aspects such as economy, environment,
or health, and must be able to create sustainable
products and systems.
The longest life cycle phase, as well
as the phase showing up highest relative
costs, is the operational phase. Therefore,
from my perspective, this phase
should be emphasized more. Efficient
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