Description
Presentation will start with discussion about the competence profile of Finnish higher engineering education students after they have entered working life. According to a recent review (Wallin, Nokelainen & Mikkonen, in press), expertise of in-service professionals develops through transforming and integrating theoretical, practical and self-regulative knowledge. Central elements in this process are (1) knowledge transformation and integration, (2) problem solving, (3) reflection, (4) learning from errors and (5) boundary crossing. Finnish technical universities alumni surveys from several years (N=3000) show that university graduates self-assess their knowledge and skills to be in a good level after entering working life. Competence development during higher engineering education studies has been most efficient in the following areas: know-how and knowledge of own field and related research, mathematical and natural science skills, problem solving, analytical and critical thinking skills and written communication. However, there are several areas where engineering education students self-report gaps in their competence after entering the working life, including creativity, social skills, entrepreneurial capacities, basics of business operations and ethicality. This presentation will contrast these issues to the findings from a recent Tampere University of Technology first year student survey (N=190), where students were asked to evaluate their willingness to become an entrepreneur in the future and self-assess their entrepreneurial (e.g., financial knowledge, Kyndt & Baert, 2015) and generic competencies (e.g., social emotional, Zhou & Ee, 2012). Connections to university pedagogy are discussed based on a recent review on the use of the use of active learning methods in engineering higher education (Hartikainen, Nokelainen, Pylväs, & Rintala, in press).Period | 16 May 2018 |
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Held at | Ludwig-Maximilians University, Germany |
Degree of Recognition | International |