Sharpening the focus of viewpoints between higher education and employers of the expertise required for contemporary and future technical managers

Sharpening the focus between what employers require for technical managers and what universities are delivering is deemed to be an urgent strategic and policy issue. Technical managers must understand the technology that they are managing and the requirements of the customers that they serve. Technical managers have wide and varied responsibilities in any enterprise; major areas are design, production facilities, manufacturing, product reliability, managing technical personnel, managing technical resources, and determining the customer´s present and future requirements. Fundamental strategic issues discussed are employer´s vision for forecasting future needs, the compatibility of university curricula with required employer job classification, and availability of graduate-level job-focused short courses, symposia, and workshops to maintain currency of technical managers for contemporary and future job demands. It is suggested that in-depth forecasts of needs by employers and a sharper focus of viewpoints interpreting these and how they can be fulfilled must be achieved to erase or allay concerns