Developing a Pedagogical Framework for Engineering Professional Development within a Service Orientated Environment

Abstract

Much has been postulated recently about the need for Universities to provide SSME related content. Many Universities are now actively pursuing course development to meet this need. However, the authors propose that certain aspects of course development must be considered if the content is to be anything other than a re-packaging of existing modules. Considering the basic inter / multi-disciplinary nature of SSME any course designed to meet the increasing demand for this level of understanding, must include multidisciplined aspect in its design. The design, development and implementation of the identified framework have been developed based on a case study with IBM, and are exploratory in nature. The framework was also developed using input from four different stakeholder groups; Engineering, Computing Science, Management, and Industry Partners. This paper will outline the assumptions made in the development of the framework, the structure and delivery mechanism of the subsequent multi-disciplined electives, and how the electives can be used to support existing postgraduate and executive training. This direct input has been used to develop a series of six electives.These electives are focus on the needs of postgraduate / professionals moving into senior management positions. Therefore, the delivery mechanism for the electives is modular to allow for the electives to be included in a range of postgraduate and executive programmes. Professional engineers live and work in a context rich environment, and do not tend to break their working days up in to subject specific segments. The reality is that they are expected to work with multiple subjects at the same time. Because of this the framework looks to develop and deliver content in a 'themic' way, as opposed to the more traditional subject based delivery. The electives are now being made available to University of Glasgow MBA students for 09/10. This will be extended to M.Eng, MSc and executive training programmes through 2010/11. The authors believe that this framework helps academic institutes understand the nature of SSME training required by customer-orientated organizations, and provide content based on service themes, as opposed to the more traditional approach of providing the content based on individual topics.