MANPOWER AND SKILL SET REQUIREMENT

Manpower and Skill Set Requirement of the Engineering Discipline

Abstract

High skills are today seen as being of vital importance to economies, industries, companies and individuals. The engineering industry is no exception and the graduate engineer has a key position in this regard. In the research reported in this paper, the authors use in-depth interviews with industry experts to investigate the provision of undergraduate engineering education in the UK. The current and future skill needs of industry are examined. A typology of future engineering roles and their requisite attributes is proposed. Implications for undergraduate engineering are also discussed.

Table of Contents

Abstract2

INTRODUCTION5

The Nature of Skill6

Identifying Future Skills Needs8

LITERATURE REVIEW10

Sustainable Development11

Protection of the Public12

Customer Agents and Patterns Faithful13

Skills and Knowledge15

Fairness and Integrity in the Workplace16

Professional Responsibility and Leadership18

Trends Impacting the Profession - Report Prepared for the ASME35

Industry Expectations of New Engineers: A Survey to Assist Curriculum Development37

Auto Parts Symposium: An Industry - University Dialogue38

Literature Review Summary40

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY42

Skills Shortage Interviews42

RESULTS45

Interview Results - Industrial Response45

Interview Results - Academic Response46

Relevance of Interviews to the PEP47

Review of Initial Surveys48

Final Verification of Academic and Industrial Surveys48

Global development trends - scenarios49

THE ENGINEER OF THE FUTURE - ISSUES AND CHALLENGES53

DISCUSSION61

Conclusions64

References65

Appendix68

List of Figures68

List of Tables69

INTRODUCTION

The main concern revolving around financial side, industries, and individuals is the skill formation. Like the above-mentioned industries, the field of Engineering also requires the skilled workers' presence. As one of the recent reports shows that in order to generate economical and social benefits via Engineering, United Kingdom is largely dependent on the availability of the specific job accomplished personals. Among the personals that are going to be the backbone of engineering industry are the students graduating in the following year. The above-mentioned report hints on the hopes and expectations from these job specified young graduates from United Kingdom Engineering industry's point of view. Particularly, the report aims at the required skills, which these graduators need to acquire in coming ten years or so to fulfil their expected role in this industry. The concept of skill is going to be the opening discussion in the paper, which is going to be applicable to higher education (HE), located within the broader context of labour market forecasting. Following a discussion of the methodology employed, the main research findings are accessible.



The Nature of Skill

The concept of skill and under graduate engineering education are combined in this research; what is meant by “skills” and could it be applied to higher education? The vague apprehension of skill conceptualized in various modes by several academic disciplines without reaching to any conclusion is one of the chief problems. According to one of the notions, skill is closely associated to the idea of practising individual's abilities, and consequently with the habitual actions. The contextual significance of the skill is undermined by being a detachable and distinct capability. This interpretation of behaviourist therefore perceives skill as rather comparatively routinisable, short in cognitive substance, something normally cultured in the course of practice. This vision moreover centres on “training” as compared to “education,” with ...