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Competencies of Graduates – An Industry Expectation

Competencies of Graduates – An Industry Expectation Changes in the environment of industry may affect the expectations related to the competencies of the employ- ees. Changes to the education system and curricula may be required. The main purpose of this research paper was to analyze the expectations of the industries related to competencies of graduates of engineering programs. The paper presents preliminary research. The survey was conducted at twenty-eight companies within the area of technical university in Poland. Based on the survey, data was collected related to the level of preparation of engineering graduates as well as the industry expectations related to the preparation of engineering graduates. This was done for the purpose of determining the gap between industry expectations and the level of preparation of the engineering graduates. Enterprises expect a wide range of competences from engineering graduates. The most important areas of competence included soft competences and practical knowledge and skills. The biggest gap between industry expectation and graduate’s preparation are the soft skills. Recommendations were sug- gested which would be incorporated in the engineering curriculum for the purpose of continuous quality improve- ment. Key words: engineering education, graduate's competences, industry expectations, curriculum INTRODUCTION with appropriate skills to meet the growing global de- In the face of economic changes, organization changes mand for professionals in the sustainable energy indus- may become necessary. These changes may affect the ex- try". Vargas, et al. [23] pointed that “policy frameworks pectations of industry as related to the competencies of for sustainable development implementation should in- the employees [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. This in turn requires clude collaboration, partnership, education, outreach, changes in the education system [8, 9] and curricula [10, teaching and learning, staff development, curriculum re- 11, 12, 13, 14, 15]. view, research, campus operations and policy”. It requires st In the present economy (21 century), the concept of sus- changes in the fields of management, research and devel- tainable development has become important and affects opment, teacher’s education as well as changes in the many aspects of our life. Engineering education needs to content of academic programs. reflect the topics of sustainable development [16, 17, 18, The purpose of this study was to analyze the expectations 19]. Incorporating sustainable development topics is a of the industries related to competencies of graduates of complex initiative. Sustainable development is a broad engineering programs. This study has two major aspects. concept requiring knowledge, skills and competencies in The first aspect is assessment of industry expectations re- many areas including ecology, sociology, ethics, security, lated to the competencies of the engineering graduates. etc. [20, 21]. Durrans et al. [22] noticed "there is an urgent The second aspect focuses on the assessment of the com- need for educational institutions to produce graduates petencies of engineering graduates (from the industry © 2022 Author(s). This is an open access article licensed under the Creative Commons BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ A. CZERWIŃSKA-LUBSZCZYK – Competencies of Graduates – an Industry Expectation 173 perspective). Comparing those two aspects helped to de- graduates of engineering education to carry out upgrad- termine the necessary changes for the engineering pro- ing, training and workshops to improve skills, competence gram. and education through continuous online computer-as- The research paper presents a fragment of international sisted training”. Zamaletdinova et al. [32] also focused on research on the competences of engineering graduates solutions related to “information technologies, electronic desired by the industry. These are preliminary studies. educational resource, electronic textbooks, webinars, multimedia sites, services, portals, platforms, new smart LITERATURE REVIEW technologies, wiki technologies, podcasts etc.”. Education Engineers are trained and prepared to work in a variety of without information and communication technologies is positions (industry, research and development, admin- unimaginable nowadays [33]. It is necessary to consider istration as well as education and training [24]. These po- the readiness of the faculty to improve methods and cur- sitions usually require a wide range of engineering com- ricula [28, 31, 34]. petencies. Traditional engineering knowledge gained in university must be supplemented by practical knowledge Competencies in Sustainability and skills [25]. These needs include: sustainability, the so- Graduates' knowledge and skills should consider issues re- cial aspect, environmental aspect and global connections. lated to the social and environmental aspects related to What more, the engineering curriculum needs to address the activities of the entire industry and the engineers and contribute to the development of soft competences. themselves. Bairaktarova and Pilotte [35] stated that “en- gineering practice is meant to advance the human condi- Width Range of Engineering's Competencies tion, yet curricula do not appear to fully promote the hu- Universities attempt to develop competences, which are man-centered philosophy of engineering in implementa- “corresponding to the characteristic of the future profes- tion”. Hoven [36] focused on comprehensive engineering, sional activities of graduates” [25]. “Competence contains which implies “ethical coherence, consilience of scientific aspects of knowledge, skills and abilities as well as person- disciplines, and cooperation between parties". Taebi and ality characteristics” [26]. Engineering competencies in- Kastenberg [37] worked on teaching engineering ethics to clude theoretical knowledge, skills and ability, attitude PhD students. Jordan et al. [38] emphasized cultural as- and soft skills as well as practical experience. Ghonim and pects. They indicated “the necessity to develop culturally Eweda [27] focused on architectural design, but also in- responsive engineering curriculum”. Gunasekera et al. cludes a wide range of other education aspects: writing, [39] focused on process safety in equipment design. theory, built projects, and creative products. Gorshkova [28] concentrated on teaching engineering students how Soft Competences to conduct research. Dubovikova [25] divides compe- Soft skills are important in the engineering profession. tences by: professional competences and universal com- Balve and Ebert [29] as well as Sabirova, et al. [40] con- petences. Balve and Ebert [29] divided competences firmed significance of soft skills. Fedoseeva et al. [30] em- gained by engineering students into four groups: profes- phasized the role of teamwork skills. The team-building sional competences (e.g., knowledge of information tech- competence could be formed during instruction time as nology/IT), methodical competences (problem-solving well as extracurricular time (research, internships, sports ability, analytical skills), social competences (oral expres- and other activities at university. Engineering tasks re- siveness, communication ability), self-competences quire the cooperation of many participants. Conducting a (adapt to changing circumstances, decision-making abil- project requires teamwork. Engineers might need to co- ity). operate with clients, designers, specialists and other engi- neers to complete a project [27]. Practical knowledge and skills For suggestions related to changing engineering curricu- Industry demands interdisciplinary and also practice-ori- lum, researchers survey graduates or employers. For ex- ented approaches to the education [30, 31]. Ghonim and ample, Castro-Bedriñana et al. [41] interviewed the grad- Eweda [27] highlighted practical aspects and the necessity uates (up to 20 years after graduation) to assess satisfac- of real-world projects. Real-world projects are “educa- tion levels related to competences developed in engineer- tional projects by which students work with real clients in ing program. real time. They are provided real budgets for socially-en- gaged projects” Interdisciplinary and practice-oriented METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH AND SAMPLE STRUCTURE approaches in education require various methods [30]. The main purpose of this research is: to analyze the ex- The process of educating highly skilled engineers should pectations of the industries related to competencies of include many aspects, such as interactive forms and meth- graduates of engineering programs. ods, research carried out using practice-oriented tech- The specific goals include: niques as well as complex and end-to-end research pro- − Assessment of the importance of various compe- jects. In addition, the educational process should include tences to industry. information technology systems, independent work, self- − Assessment of the level of preparation of graduates of control, self-assessment of students and extracurricular engineering programs. activities [28]. Syahmaidi et al. [26] noticed: “It is time for 174 Management Systems in Production Engineering 2022, Volume 30, Issue 2 The answers related to the importance of skills to industry − Identification of the gap between industry expecta- tions and graduate’s preparation. are shown in Fig. 1. The data are arranged according to the responses: “very valuable” to ”no value”. − Preparation of suggested curricular modifications to be implemented in engineering education programs to eliminate the gap between industry expectations and the graduate’s preparation. The survey was conducted at twenty-eight companies within the area of technical university in Poland. The data was collected in May and June 2020. The survey was avail- able in electronic and paper formats. The respondents could choose the format that they wanted to use. The two criteria for selecting companies to be surveyed were as follows: − Willingness of the company to participate, − Compatibility criterion (the company is hiring engi- neering graduates). In the analysis of the collected empirical data arithmetic average was used. Two missing data appeared (indicated as "no data" in Table 1). Table 1 5 – Very valuable; 4 – Valuable; 3 – Somewhat valuable; Characteristics of the companies being surveyed 2 – Not very valuable; 1 – No value The period of time Number Percentage Fig. 1 Results of the survey – importance of skills to industry on the market of companies 5-15 5 17.86% The most important areas of knowledge/competence ac- 16-25 9 32.14% cording to the surveyed companies included: communica- 26 or more 12 42.86% tions, being a problem-solver, ability for solving real- No data 2 7.14% world problems, teamwork, ability to define the problem, Sum 28 100% working well with others, articulating themself orally, Employment Number Percentage data of employees computers and related technologies (as tools), thinking Below 9 4 14.29 % critically and analytically, formulating problems and 10-49 3 10.71 % methodologies. 50-249 6 21.43 % All the individual areas of knowledge/skills were rated ra- 250 or more 13 46.43 % ther highly by the respondents. Companies taking the sur- No data 2 7.14% vey expect a very broad range of competences from engi- Sum 28 100% neering graduates. Competencies in sustainability were less important for the Most of the surveyed companies have a well-established surveyed companies: engineering ethics, developing per- position on the market, which is indicated in Table 1. Most sonal ethics and valued, understanding of environmental of the surveyed companies were operating in the market concerns and understanding of global concerns, contrib- for over 25 years (42.86%) and were large enterprises uting back to society and community, global and social (46.43%) with 250 or more employees. content. The answers related to level of preparation of graduates RESULTS OF RESEARCH are shown in Fig. 2. The data are arranged according to The respondents taking the survey were asked to specify the responses from “very well prepared” to “not pre- the requirements of the company related to the compe- pared”. The areas where graduates have the best prepa- tences of graduates of engineering program. The individ- rations are: computer and related technologies (as tools), ual areas of knowledge/skills were assessed on a scale knowledge of science, mathematics and engineering prin- from 1 to 5, where 1 means no value, 5 means very valu- ciples, using computers and IT. The areas where graduates able. Subsequently, a request was made to assess the are poorly prepared for employment are: contributing level of preparation of engineering graduates in particular back to society and the community, social and behavioral knowledge/skills areas. The same scale from 1 to 5 was sciences, understanding global concerns, communica- also used, (where 1 means not prepared, 5 means very tions as well as global and societal content. well prepared). The results of the survey are shown in Fig. 1, Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. A. CZERWIŃSKA-LUBSZCZYK – Competencies of Graduates – an Industry Expectation 175 graduates in individual areas of knowledge and skills, it can be noticed that the largest discrepancies exist in the following: − Communications, − Articulating yourself using writing skills, − Working well with others, − Solving real-world problems, − Teamwork, − Is a problem-solver. It is worth noticing that these are also the most important areas of competence for the surveyed companies. Among the competences in the field of environmental and social issues (competencies in sustainability), there are also competency gaps. The survey questionnaire included an additional closed- 5 – Very well prepared; 4 – Prepared; 3 – Somewhat prepared; ended question related to articulating yourself using writ- 2 – Poorly prepared; 1 – Not prepared ing skills: Which forms of writing are engineering gradu- Fig. 2 Results of the survey – level of preparation of graduates ates expected to do as a part of their employment? This was a multiple-choice question. Summary of the re- A comparison has been made between the mean values sponses was as follows: of competencies from the perspective of the importance − Write a summary (1 page), (24.24% of respondents), of skills for industry and the level of preparation of engi- − Write notes with some details (about 2 pages), neering graduates (Fig. 3). The competencies above the (21.21% of respondents), diagonal dotted line are important to industry, but they − Write a short report (3 to 5 pages), (15.15% of re- are not sufficiently mastered by engineering graduates. spondents), Industries hiring engineering graduates have a very wide Write an extensive report (more than 5 pages), (39.39% range of expected competencies. respondents). Comparing the expectations towards graduates and the assessment of the level of preparation of engineering Fig. 3 Results of the survey – importance of skills to industry and level of preparation of graduates 176 Management Systems in Production Engineering 2022, Volume 30, Issue 2 CONCLUSIONS They are not going to require on-the-job training after en- The modern world establishes not only economic goals for tering industry. The empirical data described in the article enterprises, but also social and environmental goals. confirmed that engineering graduates are well-prepared Some of the researchers indicate (Gartner [42], OECD in the areas of computer and related technologies (as [43], WEF [44]), that many new job categories will appear tools), knowledge of science, mathematics and engineer- and replace existing jobs, so the skills required for em- ing principles, using computers and IT. ployment will change fundamentally [45]. This will create It is important to educate engineers with a practice-ori- changes in the educational system [35, 38, 39, 41, 46]. The ented approach, that is the use of case studies, visits to curricula must constantly be adapted to changes taking enterprises, participation in workshops, hands-on train- place in the economy from social, environmental and ings, as well as the organization, attendance and partici- cost-effective perspectives [47]. pation at conferences and meetings done in collaboration The conducted research focused on the competences of with industry. graduates of engineering programs which are expected by One of the tools to improve the process of updating cur- industry. The following conclusions were derived: ricula may be the practice used in the USA – "Partners in Education" (PIE) [49]. It consists of business and education − Enterprises expect a wide range of competences from engineering graduates. partners. The main goals are ensuring that all students have “academic, technical and employability skills neces- − The most important areas of competence included st sary to be successful in the 21 century”. The members of soft competences (communication skills, teamwork, PIE are volunteers representing industry as well as educa- works well with others, articulating yourself orally), tional institutions. practical knowledge and skills (problem-solving, solv- Presently there are many changes in industry regulations ing real-world problems, defining the problem, com- related to sustainable development [50, 51]. Those puters and related technologies (as tools), thinking changes are focusing primarily on reducing greenhouse critically and analytically, formulating of problems and gas emissions. This can be accomplished by reducing the methodologies). use of coal in electricity production as well as developing − The empirical data described in the article confirms technologies for increasing energy efficiency [52, 53]. En- good preparation of graduates in the areas of com- gineering education should place more emphasis on de- puter and related technologies (as tools), knowledge veloping competences in the field of sustainable develop- of science, mathematics and engineering principles, ment. The direction of these domestic changes requires using computers and IT. the training of personnel to implement the goals set by − The biggest gap between industry expectation and Poland as a member state of the European Union. graduate’s preparation are the soft skills. The main research limitation was the relatively small re- − Competences in the field of environmental and social search sample. The paper presents preliminary research. issues were of less importance to the surveyed enter- The research data which has been collected are interest- prises. ing. The authors are willing to continue further research. − There are also gap among competencies related to When continuing further research, the sample size should sustainability. be increased. The authors believe that the study of grad- When preparing curricula for engineering studies, atten- uates' competency gaps should be a continuous process tion should be focused on the following: that will enable the adaptation of curricula to the chang- − Focusing on a wider range of competences. ing expectations of the industry. For example, COVID-19 − Soft skills. pandemic is affecting industry expectations related to the − Skills of articulating yourself using writing skills (prep- competencies of the employees. This should be included aration for writing of texts of various lengths: summar- in future research. ies-about 1 page, notes covering a few details-about 2 pages as well as short and long reports that are widely ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS used in industry). The article presents a part of international research on the − Practical knowledge. competences of engineering graduates. This project would Authors (Grebski, Grebski, Czerwińska-Lubszczyk, Jagoda- not have been possible without Professor Wes Grebski Sobalak) [48] compared the curriculum of the Mechanical (The Pennsylvania State University) and Iwona Łapuńka, Engineering Program in Poland (Politechnika Opolska) and PhD (Opole University of Technology). The authors are the United States (Pennsylvania State University). 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Eu- Zootechnical Engineering for Improvement of Educational ropean Research Studies Journal, vol. XXIII, Special Issue 1, Quality at the UNCP”. Advances in Science, Technology and pp. 1100-1112, 2020. Engineering Systems Journal, vol. 5(2), pp. 166-173, 2020. [42] Gartner. Internet: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom, [Apr. 20, 2020]. Agnieszka Czerwińska-Lubszczyk Dominika Jagoda-Sobalak ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8100-8802 ORCID ID: 0000-0003-3085-6603 University of Bielsko-Biala Opole University of Technology Faculty of Management and Transport Faculty of Production Engineering and Logistics Department of Economic and Social Science Department of Management and Production Engineering ul. Willowa 2, 43-309 Bielsko-Biała, Poland ul. Ozimska 75, 45-370 Opole, Poland e-mail: aczerwinska@ath.bielsko.pl e-mail: d.jagoda@po.opole.pl Michalene Grebski ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3487-4473 Colorado Mesa University 1100 North Avenue Grand Junction, CO 81501-3122, USA e-mail: mgrebski@coloradomesa.edu http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Management Systems in Production Engineering de Gruyter

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© 2022 Agnieszka Czerwińska-Lubszczyk et al., published by Sciendo
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Abstract

Changes in the environment of industry may affect the expectations related to the competencies of the employ- ees. Changes to the education system and curricula may be required. The main purpose of this research paper was to analyze the expectations of the industries related to competencies of graduates of engineering programs. The paper presents preliminary research. The survey was conducted at twenty-eight companies within the area of technical university in Poland. Based on the survey, data was collected related to the level of preparation of engineering graduates as well as the industry expectations related to the preparation of engineering graduates. This was done for the purpose of determining the gap between industry expectations and the level of preparation of the engineering graduates. Enterprises expect a wide range of competences from engineering graduates. The most important areas of competence included soft competences and practical knowledge and skills. The biggest gap between industry expectation and graduate’s preparation are the soft skills. Recommendations were sug- gested which would be incorporated in the engineering curriculum for the purpose of continuous quality improve- ment. Key words: engineering education, graduate's competences, industry expectations, curriculum INTRODUCTION with appropriate skills to meet the growing global de- In the face of economic changes, organization changes mand for professionals in the sustainable energy indus- may become necessary. These changes may affect the ex- try". Vargas, et al. [23] pointed that “policy frameworks pectations of industry as related to the competencies of for sustainable development implementation should in- the employees [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. This in turn requires clude collaboration, partnership, education, outreach, changes in the education system [8, 9] and curricula [10, teaching and learning, staff development, curriculum re- 11, 12, 13, 14, 15]. view, research, campus operations and policy”. It requires st In the present economy (21 century), the concept of sus- changes in the fields of management, research and devel- tainable development has become important and affects opment, teacher’s education as well as changes in the many aspects of our life. Engineering education needs to content of academic programs. reflect the topics of sustainable development [16, 17, 18, The purpose of this study was to analyze the expectations 19]. Incorporating sustainable development topics is a of the industries related to competencies of graduates of complex initiative. Sustainable development is a broad engineering programs. This study has two major aspects. concept requiring knowledge, skills and competencies in The first aspect is assessment of industry expectations re- many areas including ecology, sociology, ethics, security, lated to the competencies of the engineering graduates. etc. [20, 21]. Durrans et al. [22] noticed "there is an urgent The second aspect focuses on the assessment of the com- need for educational institutions to produce graduates petencies of engineering graduates (from the industry © 2022 Author(s). This is an open access article licensed under the Creative Commons BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ A. CZERWIŃSKA-LUBSZCZYK – Competencies of Graduates – an Industry Expectation 173 perspective). Comparing those two aspects helped to de- graduates of engineering education to carry out upgrad- termine the necessary changes for the engineering pro- ing, training and workshops to improve skills, competence gram. and education through continuous online computer-as- The research paper presents a fragment of international sisted training”. Zamaletdinova et al. [32] also focused on research on the competences of engineering graduates solutions related to “information technologies, electronic desired by the industry. These are preliminary studies. educational resource, electronic textbooks, webinars, multimedia sites, services, portals, platforms, new smart LITERATURE REVIEW technologies, wiki technologies, podcasts etc.”. Education Engineers are trained and prepared to work in a variety of without information and communication technologies is positions (industry, research and development, admin- unimaginable nowadays [33]. It is necessary to consider istration as well as education and training [24]. These po- the readiness of the faculty to improve methods and cur- sitions usually require a wide range of engineering com- ricula [28, 31, 34]. petencies. Traditional engineering knowledge gained in university must be supplemented by practical knowledge Competencies in Sustainability and skills [25]. These needs include: sustainability, the so- Graduates' knowledge and skills should consider issues re- cial aspect, environmental aspect and global connections. lated to the social and environmental aspects related to What more, the engineering curriculum needs to address the activities of the entire industry and the engineers and contribute to the development of soft competences. themselves. Bairaktarova and Pilotte [35] stated that “en- gineering practice is meant to advance the human condi- Width Range of Engineering's Competencies tion, yet curricula do not appear to fully promote the hu- Universities attempt to develop competences, which are man-centered philosophy of engineering in implementa- “corresponding to the characteristic of the future profes- tion”. Hoven [36] focused on comprehensive engineering, sional activities of graduates” [25]. “Competence contains which implies “ethical coherence, consilience of scientific aspects of knowledge, skills and abilities as well as person- disciplines, and cooperation between parties". Taebi and ality characteristics” [26]. Engineering competencies in- Kastenberg [37] worked on teaching engineering ethics to clude theoretical knowledge, skills and ability, attitude PhD students. Jordan et al. [38] emphasized cultural as- and soft skills as well as practical experience. Ghonim and pects. They indicated “the necessity to develop culturally Eweda [27] focused on architectural design, but also in- responsive engineering curriculum”. Gunasekera et al. cludes a wide range of other education aspects: writing, [39] focused on process safety in equipment design. theory, built projects, and creative products. Gorshkova [28] concentrated on teaching engineering students how Soft Competences to conduct research. Dubovikova [25] divides compe- Soft skills are important in the engineering profession. tences by: professional competences and universal com- Balve and Ebert [29] as well as Sabirova, et al. [40] con- petences. Balve and Ebert [29] divided competences firmed significance of soft skills. Fedoseeva et al. [30] em- gained by engineering students into four groups: profes- phasized the role of teamwork skills. The team-building sional competences (e.g., knowledge of information tech- competence could be formed during instruction time as nology/IT), methodical competences (problem-solving well as extracurricular time (research, internships, sports ability, analytical skills), social competences (oral expres- and other activities at university. Engineering tasks re- siveness, communication ability), self-competences quire the cooperation of many participants. Conducting a (adapt to changing circumstances, decision-making abil- project requires teamwork. Engineers might need to co- ity). operate with clients, designers, specialists and other engi- neers to complete a project [27]. Practical knowledge and skills For suggestions related to changing engineering curricu- Industry demands interdisciplinary and also practice-ori- lum, researchers survey graduates or employers. For ex- ented approaches to the education [30, 31]. Ghonim and ample, Castro-Bedriñana et al. [41] interviewed the grad- Eweda [27] highlighted practical aspects and the necessity uates (up to 20 years after graduation) to assess satisfac- of real-world projects. Real-world projects are “educa- tion levels related to competences developed in engineer- tional projects by which students work with real clients in ing program. real time. They are provided real budgets for socially-en- gaged projects” Interdisciplinary and practice-oriented METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH AND SAMPLE STRUCTURE approaches in education require various methods [30]. The main purpose of this research is: to analyze the ex- The process of educating highly skilled engineers should pectations of the industries related to competencies of include many aspects, such as interactive forms and meth- graduates of engineering programs. ods, research carried out using practice-oriented tech- The specific goals include: niques as well as complex and end-to-end research pro- − Assessment of the importance of various compe- jects. In addition, the educational process should include tences to industry. information technology systems, independent work, self- − Assessment of the level of preparation of graduates of control, self-assessment of students and extracurricular engineering programs. activities [28]. Syahmaidi et al. [26] noticed: “It is time for 174 Management Systems in Production Engineering 2022, Volume 30, Issue 2 The answers related to the importance of skills to industry − Identification of the gap between industry expecta- tions and graduate’s preparation. are shown in Fig. 1. The data are arranged according to the responses: “very valuable” to ”no value”. − Preparation of suggested curricular modifications to be implemented in engineering education programs to eliminate the gap between industry expectations and the graduate’s preparation. The survey was conducted at twenty-eight companies within the area of technical university in Poland. The data was collected in May and June 2020. The survey was avail- able in electronic and paper formats. The respondents could choose the format that they wanted to use. The two criteria for selecting companies to be surveyed were as follows: − Willingness of the company to participate, − Compatibility criterion (the company is hiring engi- neering graduates). In the analysis of the collected empirical data arithmetic average was used. Two missing data appeared (indicated as "no data" in Table 1). Table 1 5 – Very valuable; 4 – Valuable; 3 – Somewhat valuable; Characteristics of the companies being surveyed 2 – Not very valuable; 1 – No value The period of time Number Percentage Fig. 1 Results of the survey – importance of skills to industry on the market of companies 5-15 5 17.86% The most important areas of knowledge/competence ac- 16-25 9 32.14% cording to the surveyed companies included: communica- 26 or more 12 42.86% tions, being a problem-solver, ability for solving real- No data 2 7.14% world problems, teamwork, ability to define the problem, Sum 28 100% working well with others, articulating themself orally, Employment Number Percentage data of employees computers and related technologies (as tools), thinking Below 9 4 14.29 % critically and analytically, formulating problems and 10-49 3 10.71 % methodologies. 50-249 6 21.43 % All the individual areas of knowledge/skills were rated ra- 250 or more 13 46.43 % ther highly by the respondents. Companies taking the sur- No data 2 7.14% vey expect a very broad range of competences from engi- Sum 28 100% neering graduates. Competencies in sustainability were less important for the Most of the surveyed companies have a well-established surveyed companies: engineering ethics, developing per- position on the market, which is indicated in Table 1. Most sonal ethics and valued, understanding of environmental of the surveyed companies were operating in the market concerns and understanding of global concerns, contrib- for over 25 years (42.86%) and were large enterprises uting back to society and community, global and social (46.43%) with 250 or more employees. content. The answers related to level of preparation of graduates RESULTS OF RESEARCH are shown in Fig. 2. The data are arranged according to The respondents taking the survey were asked to specify the responses from “very well prepared” to “not pre- the requirements of the company related to the compe- pared”. The areas where graduates have the best prepa- tences of graduates of engineering program. The individ- rations are: computer and related technologies (as tools), ual areas of knowledge/skills were assessed on a scale knowledge of science, mathematics and engineering prin- from 1 to 5, where 1 means no value, 5 means very valu- ciples, using computers and IT. The areas where graduates able. Subsequently, a request was made to assess the are poorly prepared for employment are: contributing level of preparation of engineering graduates in particular back to society and the community, social and behavioral knowledge/skills areas. The same scale from 1 to 5 was sciences, understanding global concerns, communica- also used, (where 1 means not prepared, 5 means very tions as well as global and societal content. well prepared). The results of the survey are shown in Fig. 1, Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. A. CZERWIŃSKA-LUBSZCZYK – Competencies of Graduates – an Industry Expectation 175 graduates in individual areas of knowledge and skills, it can be noticed that the largest discrepancies exist in the following: − Communications, − Articulating yourself using writing skills, − Working well with others, − Solving real-world problems, − Teamwork, − Is a problem-solver. It is worth noticing that these are also the most important areas of competence for the surveyed companies. Among the competences in the field of environmental and social issues (competencies in sustainability), there are also competency gaps. The survey questionnaire included an additional closed- 5 – Very well prepared; 4 – Prepared; 3 – Somewhat prepared; ended question related to articulating yourself using writ- 2 – Poorly prepared; 1 – Not prepared ing skills: Which forms of writing are engineering gradu- Fig. 2 Results of the survey – level of preparation of graduates ates expected to do as a part of their employment? This was a multiple-choice question. Summary of the re- A comparison has been made between the mean values sponses was as follows: of competencies from the perspective of the importance − Write a summary (1 page), (24.24% of respondents), of skills for industry and the level of preparation of engi- − Write notes with some details (about 2 pages), neering graduates (Fig. 3). The competencies above the (21.21% of respondents), diagonal dotted line are important to industry, but they − Write a short report (3 to 5 pages), (15.15% of re- are not sufficiently mastered by engineering graduates. spondents), Industries hiring engineering graduates have a very wide Write an extensive report (more than 5 pages), (39.39% range of expected competencies. respondents). Comparing the expectations towards graduates and the assessment of the level of preparation of engineering Fig. 3 Results of the survey – importance of skills to industry and level of preparation of graduates 176 Management Systems in Production Engineering 2022, Volume 30, Issue 2 CONCLUSIONS They are not going to require on-the-job training after en- The modern world establishes not only economic goals for tering industry. The empirical data described in the article enterprises, but also social and environmental goals. confirmed that engineering graduates are well-prepared Some of the researchers indicate (Gartner [42], OECD in the areas of computer and related technologies (as [43], WEF [44]), that many new job categories will appear tools), knowledge of science, mathematics and engineer- and replace existing jobs, so the skills required for em- ing principles, using computers and IT. ployment will change fundamentally [45]. This will create It is important to educate engineers with a practice-ori- changes in the educational system [35, 38, 39, 41, 46]. The ented approach, that is the use of case studies, visits to curricula must constantly be adapted to changes taking enterprises, participation in workshops, hands-on train- place in the economy from social, environmental and ings, as well as the organization, attendance and partici- cost-effective perspectives [47]. pation at conferences and meetings done in collaboration The conducted research focused on the competences of with industry. graduates of engineering programs which are expected by One of the tools to improve the process of updating cur- industry. The following conclusions were derived: ricula may be the practice used in the USA – "Partners in Education" (PIE) [49]. It consists of business and education − Enterprises expect a wide range of competences from engineering graduates. partners. The main goals are ensuring that all students have “academic, technical and employability skills neces- − The most important areas of competence included st sary to be successful in the 21 century”. The members of soft competences (communication skills, teamwork, PIE are volunteers representing industry as well as educa- works well with others, articulating yourself orally), tional institutions. practical knowledge and skills (problem-solving, solv- Presently there are many changes in industry regulations ing real-world problems, defining the problem, com- related to sustainable development [50, 51]. Those puters and related technologies (as tools), thinking changes are focusing primarily on reducing greenhouse critically and analytically, formulating of problems and gas emissions. This can be accomplished by reducing the methodologies). use of coal in electricity production as well as developing − The empirical data described in the article confirms technologies for increasing energy efficiency [52, 53]. En- good preparation of graduates in the areas of com- gineering education should place more emphasis on de- puter and related technologies (as tools), knowledge veloping competences in the field of sustainable develop- of science, mathematics and engineering principles, ment. The direction of these domestic changes requires using computers and IT. the training of personnel to implement the goals set by − The biggest gap between industry expectation and Poland as a member state of the European Union. graduate’s preparation are the soft skills. The main research limitation was the relatively small re- − Competences in the field of environmental and social search sample. The paper presents preliminary research. issues were of less importance to the surveyed enter- The research data which has been collected are interest- prises. ing. The authors are willing to continue further research. − There are also gap among competencies related to When continuing further research, the sample size should sustainability. be increased. The authors believe that the study of grad- When preparing curricula for engineering studies, atten- uates' competency gaps should be a continuous process tion should be focused on the following: that will enable the adaptation of curricula to the chang- − Focusing on a wider range of competences. ing expectations of the industry. For example, COVID-19 − Soft skills. pandemic is affecting industry expectations related to the − Skills of articulating yourself using writing skills (prep- competencies of the employees. This should be included aration for writing of texts of various lengths: summar- in future research. ies-about 1 page, notes covering a few details-about 2 pages as well as short and long reports that are widely ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS used in industry). The article presents a part of international research on the − Practical knowledge. competences of engineering graduates. This project would Authors (Grebski, Grebski, Czerwińska-Lubszczyk, Jagoda- not have been possible without Professor Wes Grebski Sobalak) [48] compared the curriculum of the Mechanical (The Pennsylvania State University) and Iwona Łapuńka, Engineering Program in Poland (Politechnika Opolska) and PhD (Opole University of Technology). The authors are the United States (Pennsylvania State University). 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Eu- Zootechnical Engineering for Improvement of Educational ropean Research Studies Journal, vol. XXIII, Special Issue 1, Quality at the UNCP”. Advances in Science, Technology and pp. 1100-1112, 2020. Engineering Systems Journal, vol. 5(2), pp. 166-173, 2020. [42] Gartner. Internet: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom, [Apr. 20, 2020]. Agnieszka Czerwińska-Lubszczyk Dominika Jagoda-Sobalak ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8100-8802 ORCID ID: 0000-0003-3085-6603 University of Bielsko-Biala Opole University of Technology Faculty of Management and Transport Faculty of Production Engineering and Logistics Department of Economic and Social Science Department of Management and Production Engineering ul. Willowa 2, 43-309 Bielsko-Biała, Poland ul. Ozimska 75, 45-370 Opole, Poland e-mail: aczerwinska@ath.bielsko.pl e-mail: d.jagoda@po.opole.pl Michalene Grebski ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3487-4473 Colorado Mesa University 1100 North Avenue Grand Junction, CO 81501-3122, USA e-mail: mgrebski@coloradomesa.edu

Journal

Management Systems in Production Engineeringde Gruyter

Published: Jun 1, 2022

Keywords: engineering education; graduate’s competences; industry expectations; curriculum

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