Credentials and competencies in modern engineering work
All of these revolutionary ideas should be encouraged from the very beginning of the educational activities of engineers. As of today, the educational system waits too long to start presenting the aspiring engineers what their role is going to be in our future societies. This is crucial to prepare them to face with competitiveness the challenges in the future. Most students are absorbed by the obsolete grade-based system on which the educational system relies, which for the most part fails to rapidly adapt to today’s highly dynamic world. As they approach the end of their college studies, they are fully accustomed to presenting a particular type of evaluation and therefore fail to demonstrate competency in useful abilities in today’s market place such as innovation and entrepreneurship basis, written and oral communication, second language fluency, programming, and finance, notions among many others (Sheppard et al.). The list will definitely look very different in a couple of years and change even more in five years, so we have to find the right avenues to promote curricular changes faster than ever. This can be only accomplished with participation of both legislators and educators. The economic crisis we are facing today is not a life fortuity; it is only an indication that our companies are not able to compete in a global scenario with the talent and innovative ideas produced elsewhere. Countries were accreditation is based not only on passing obsolete and simplified tests are becoming global leaders in training the next generation engineers.
Future engineers will face challenges that we are not able to foresee today, so we need a visionary strategy now to revolutionize how we think of education in our country. If we fail to adapt, others will embrace the challenge and become the future’s leaders in science, technology, and frontier engineering. Contrary to what some believe, these ideas will strengthen our very own institutions, a conservative view of a system stating that things worked as they are and will work no matter what, are to be avoided. Showing credentials obtained under such an arrogant and recalcitrant paradigm to prove one’s ability to compete as professional would have to be disregarded if we really want to step forward into a prosperous future.
Modern curricula will have to have a clear path for our students to early on their programs approach to these real world challenges, and right there start thinking about possible solutions and strategies to tackle them (Sheppard et al.). Students themselves will then move forward customizing their coursework according to what they need to help solving a particular problem of their interest. Self-motivated students will definitely move ahead with more passion as they see tangible benefits in what they are doing. In the end, the very same student will approach licensure with a much more holistic view of engineering. Off course, the license exam would have to be modified as well. As of now, let’s get started with the very simplest question: are we educating and licensing the next generation leaders in engineering?
Works Cited
Galloway, P. D. The 21st-Century Engineer: A Proposal for Engineering Education Reform. Amer Society of Civil Engineers, 2007.
Sheppard, S. et al. Educating Engineers: Designing for the Future of the Field. Jossey-Bass, 2008.
