Report on the Prioritization of Skills and Competences Required by Future Engineers as part of A-STEP 2030 project
Abstract
This document reports on the outcomes of three separate studies 1) Universum’s study about university
students’ and graduates’ different aspects of their career expectations and their ideal employers. 2)
On-line-survey of 16-year-old pupils in Finland: Self-assessment tool: How much of an engineer are you?
3) Outcomes from two BEST (Board of European Students of Technology) symposia about Diversity in
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education in 2019 as part of the A-STEP 2030
project (EU Erasmus + project funded under call number 2018-1-FR01-KA203-047854).
The aim of the Universum study was to carry out EU mapping of future engineering profession with the
values of engineering students of today. The data for this analysis was collected from responses to the
Universum survey between September 2018 and April 2019. The data used in this study was collected
from 6 countries; Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland and Sweden. Three questions were selected
for the study: 1) which of these career goals are most important to you? (Select 3) 2) how do you rate
yourself in the following skills? (Select 3 strong skills and 3 weak skills) 3) which of these employer
attributes are most important to you? (Select 3). For each question, the differences between male and
female engineering students, engineering and humanities students and students from generation Y and Z
were investigated in six target countries. This analysis is included in Report 3. This report R4 presents a
more detailed view and comparison between Denmark, Finland, France and Ireland.
The key findings show that there are differences between countries among engineers, among humanities
students and among generations Z (age 17 to 22) and Y (age 23 to 38). Generally, it can be said that
there is a tendency among students in all countries to rate issues surrounding environmental and social
responsibility as more important than economic issues, issues which certainly had formerly been accorded
greater prominence. Especially humanities students - but also female engineering students - rated these
environmental and social responsibility issues very highly among their career goals and attractive
employer attributes. The other difference between humanities and engineering students’ attitudes was
that the goal: “To be a leader or manager of people” was, in all studied countries, more important to
engineering students than to humanities students.
All students rated the career goal “Work/life balance” as very important and - at the same time - all
of them said that their weakest soft skill was “Time management”. The other weakest soft skill common
to all students was “Integrity”. Concerning “Communication” skills, there still seems to be room for
development for all students - even though humanities students trust themselves more than engineering
students in this regard. Engineering students think that their strongest soft skills are “Problem-solving”,
“Responsibility” and “Teamwork”, while humanities students consider their strongest soft skills to be:
“Responsibility”, “Positive attitude” and “Adaptability”. Regarding “Responsibility”, the younger
generation Z looks to be a bit more responsible than the older Generation Y.
For the humanities students - “To be dedicated to a cause or to feel that I am serving a greater good”
was the most important career goal. Nearly two thirds of all humanities students selected this career goal
from among the three most important ones. On the contrary, only slightly more than one third (35,1%)
of engineering students rated this goal among their three most important. Among engineering students
in all studied countries, “Commitment to diversity and inclusion” and “Corporate social responsibility”
were the two least attractive employer attributes. For this group, on average, the most important work
attribute was “Innovation”, the second most important being “A creative and dynamic work environment”
and the third most important “Professional training and development”.
The Finnish 16-year-old pupils’ attitudes towards the Sustainable Development Goals - according to the
on-line-survey completed by Metropolia University of Applied Sciences - showed that the most important
SDG to them was “Good Health and Well-Being”. Also, more than 60% of pupils had selected “Quality
Education”, “Zero Hunger” and “Climate Action” among the three most important Sustainable
Development Goals. The least votes were accorded to the following: “Sustainable Cities and
Communities”, “Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure”, “Decent Work and Economic Growth”, and
“Affordable and Clean Energy”. Over 75 % of pupils wanted to promote SDGs. Pupils were also asked
about their willingness to learn the following: a) skills needed for sustainable development, b) problem
solving skills, c) interpersonal skills, d) skills to work responsibly and d) time management skills. The survey
indicated that most of the pupils recognized the need for all the skills mentioned, while only a very small
number accorded them no importance at all. According to their responses, most of the pupils were willing
to work in groups, ready to apply technology, and prepared to solve challenging problems in
multicultural environments.
The various ideas and recommendations from BEST’s two symposia about Diversity in STEM education is
presented in chapter 7. Diversity can be seen to play a key role in the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) and that’s why it is important to take it into account in developing engineering education.
According to BEST’s results, the ten most important skills for STEM graduates are: critical thinking,
analytical skills, problem solving, innovation, collaboration, communication, customer orientation,
adaptability, social responsibility and balance. The skills needed in STEM professions - according to BEST
- are: teamwork (25.5 %), ability to learn (17.6 %), adaptability (17.6 %), communication (11.8 %),
Leadership (5.9 %) and versatility (5.9 %).
The findings of all these three studies will be published as Intellectual Output 2 of the A-STEP 2030
project.
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