Workplace changes and engineering education reform

During most of the past century, each decade or so has provided a major study of engineering education that examined the health of the enterprise, determined its shortcomings and offered recommendations for change. Examining the past prepares us to understand the future more clearly. During the past few years several major workshops and studies have explored engineering education-where it is now and how it should be changing. Engineering education is a career oriented education. Significant changes in the workplace for engineering graduates should and will drive change in the engineering education process. The average company will be smaller, the new paradigm focuses on business as furnishing services, and technical workers will be the worker elite. The new demands of the workplace suggests the emphasis for engineering education should shift from a focus on course content to a focus on the development of human resources and a broader educational experience. What the new engineering education should be has been explored more than how we can move from where we are to where we should be. The systemic changes needed in engineering education will require a concurrent change in the academic culture