In recognition of these complex agendas it is suggested here
that some form of framework of learning is necessary to
ensure that engineering educators are able to take forward
this array of approaches and perspectives within a coherent
form. The following themes, skills and dispositions are
suggested as a starting point:
A framework for the global dimension within the
engineering profession43
Generic Themes:
■ understanding of the major global challenges
■ commitment to democracy and the social contract
between government, business and the citizen
■ corporate responsibility debates and solutions
■ sustainable development debates and solutions
■ global development and poverty reduction debates
and solutions
■ corruption, conflict and ethical debates and solutions
■ global interdependence and the connections between
local and global
Generic Skills:
■ holistic thinking, critical enquiry, analysis and reflection
■ active learning and practical application
■ self awareness and empathy
■ strong communication and listening skills
Generic Dispositions:
■ commitment to promoting social justice and
responsibility
■ appropriate values and informed perceptions
■ integrity and trustworthiness
■ continuous learner
The Leitch Review44 emphasises the need for ‘world class
skills’. A key component of these skills for engineers has to
be to understand and engage with the wider world. But as
suggested already, this is not merely knowledge about
countries and global processes, important as they are, but
the skills necessary to make sense of globalisation and its
impact on peoples’ everyday lives and to respond to global
challenges and opportunities.
Global skills could be defined as merely about skills to
engage with economies and markets. This, for example, is
the perspective of major US consultancy company, World-
View:45
Global Skills are foundational business skills for companies
seeking to enhance their global competitiveness, and which
focus on acquiring the necessary local country knowledge as
it pertains to communication, relationship-building and
problem-solving skills. Global Skills play a key role between
the interplay of economics, politics, culture, technology and
the environment, and reflect the forward thinking of
companies who desire to work effectively across borders
while respecting local values.
However this perspective wholly exists within the prevalent
global business model and fails to acknowledge the
legitimate criticisms of this business model. The danger is
that such an approach is liable to perpetuate ‘business as
usual’ attitudes, entrench existing inequalities and power
structures and leave unsustainable and unethical practice
unchallenged. As the Development Education Association
(DEA) has observed unless global skills includes essential skills
in critical engagement and also leads to the adoption of
impact-oriented behaviours, learning will be ineffectual.46
It is suggested here that the key to understanding global
skills recognising the following:
■ The value of critical thinking
■ The complex nature of the world in which we are living.
■ The increasingly vulnerability of economies and societies
to global shocks.
■ That the future is uncertain and there are not necessarily
a series of easily identifiable solutions.
In response, education needs to prepare students for
life-long learning in a globalised society which enables them
to cope with and adapt to this complexity, uncertainty and
vulnerability. This involves fundamental shifts in course
content and delivery...
|
Moving from |
Moving towards |
|
Fixed content and skills |
Concepts and strategies |
Absorbing information,
reproducing received
knowledge and accepting
and adapting to existing
structures and models of
thinking, knowing and
being.
Assessing, interrogating
and connecting
information, generating
knowledge, living with
difference and conflict
and shifting positions and
perspectives according to
contexts.
Structured, ordered and
stable, predictable,
comprehensible as a
whole, universal meanings
and interpretations
Complex and changing,
uncertain, multifaceted
and interconnected,
different meanings and
interpretation
This approach reinforces the importance of transferable
professional skills including awareness of emerging global
risks and opportunities and cross-cultural capability outlined
in the Henley report.47 The Henley report describes the
shift in emphasis within engineering education away from
imparting knowledge, towards developing the underpinning
skills required to find, analyse and apply knowledge in ways
which are appropriate and sensitive to the local context and
culture and appropriate attitudes and personal qualities to
do this with humility and empathy.
Page 12 The Global Engineer