The CEG Project The CEG Project will develop a survey instrument to profile the competencies of engineering graduates using ratings made by the workplace supervisors of recent graduates. The purpose of the instrument is to close the loop in the ongoing development of engineering education programs to align them with industry needs. The instrument will be designed to be used by Australian universities that provide undergraduate engineering education. Applications will include program evaluation, benchmarking and demonstration of satisfaction of the requirements for program accreditation. The CEG Project research plan includes 2 surveys followed by the development and testing of the final survey instrument. The First Survey The first large scale survey in the CEG Project profiled the work and required competencies of ‘established engineers’, that is, engineers with 5 to 20 years’ experience since graduation. The questionnaire asked about the engineers' work in order to group engineering jobs into clusters with similar work contexts and tasks. We are grateful to the over 300 volunteers who participated in the survey. Congratulations to Ms Liesl Smithers, winner of the ipod. Different sample groups made significantly different ratings of the importance for various competencies. Competencies that received the highest average ratings of importance included communication, self-management, teamwork, interaction with people in diverse disciplines/professions/trades, commitment to doing one’s best, problem-solving and honesty. The Second Survey The participants in the second survey were senior engineers. This survey was to confirm the ooutcomes of the first survey. We are grateful to the many engineers who participated in this survey. Analysis of the results is underway. The Final Instrument The final insturment will measure aptitude to develop the competencies required by established engineers. The Researchers The project is being undertaken in the School of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Western Australia by Sally Male (tel +61 8 6488 7815) sallym@mech.uwa.edu.au supervised by Professor Mark Bush mark.bush@uwa.edu.au Conference Presentations Male, S., Chapman, E., "Assessing the Generic Competencies of Engineering Graduates", Global Colloquium on Engineering Education, Sydney 2005 http://www.aaee.com.au/conferences/papers/2005/Paper/Paper203.pdf Work on the questionnaire for established engineers was presented at the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia Conference, The University of Western Australia, July 2006. Male, S., Chapman, E., Bush, B., "Do female and male engineers rate different competencies as important", Australasian Association for Engineering Education Conference, The University of Melbourne, 2007. Full paper available on the conference website http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/aaee2007/papers/paper_61.pdf Male, S.A., "Leadership in Engineering Education Gradually Establishing Status for Non-technical Competencies in Engineering Faculties" Engendering Leadership Conference, The University of Western Australia, July 22-24, 2008. Abstract available on conference website (final abstract in the stream) http://www.business.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/57655/Masculinities_Program.pdf Acknowledgements Participation from industry is vital to the success of this project. The research team is extremely grateful to members of the CEG Project Advisory Committee; members of the panel session held in 2005; volunteers who tested the surveys and participants in the surveys; individuals who promoted the call for volunteers; organisations that promoted the call for volunteers, including members of the UWA Engineering Advisory Board and Panels and Engineering Foundation, Engineers Australia and the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (WA); Dominic Angerame at the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia (APESMA) for survey data. The Project uses and extends the work of Engineers Australia in the field of competency identification and evaluation and has adopted questions from the salary surveys conducted by the APESMA in conjunction with Engineers Australia. Sally Male receives a scholarship from UWA. | 