Industry Perspectives on Most Important Engineering Competencies

2 Industry Perspectives on Most Important Engineering Competencies 

If we were to come up with a wish list of qualities (skills/competencies) desired in an engineer from an industry perspective, the following list would be representative of most industrial organizations in the region  

The role of a soimd foimdation in math, science, and engineering principles is well established. It is very important, however, to emphasize the role of soft skills in making a successful engineer as will be detailed in subsequent sections of this chapter. Our view of essential competencies of engineers has also been reported in several studies (Abdulwahed et al. 2013). Even though all the skills/competencies listed above are important, this chapter is not intended to treat each one of them in detail rather, we will focus on some aspects that are extremely important from our perspective, namely critical thinking and problem solving. 

The waves of industrial revolution mentioned in section 18.3 are sometimes referred to as waves of innovation and industrial development. They are also called Kondratiev waves, or K-waves. What matters for the purpose of this ehapter is not the theory of cycles and waves in industrial development, but rather the word Iimo-vation, which is common to all those historical industrial developments. Research and irmovation are directly related to and dependent on the soft skills mentioned in the previous section. Critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration are key to successful R D programs in industrial laboratories. 

Abdulwahed, M., Balid, W., Hasna, M. O., Pokharel, S. (2013). Skills of engineers in knowledge based economies A comprehensive literature review, andrrmdel development. Teaching, Assessment and Learning for Engineering (TALE), 2013 IEEE International Conference on (pp. 759-765). IEEE. 

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