Identifying the challenging factors in the transition from colleges of engineering to employment

Abstract

The transition from university to a career in engineering is a challenging process. This study examined the perceptions of engineering graduates regarding the difficulties they encountered in their transition from the university to the workplace. Lebanese practising engineers (n = 217), living around the world, were surveyed to identify their current employment situations and their attitudes toward their academic preparation. Factor analysis revealed three main challenges facing engineering graduates: communication; responsibility; self-confidence. Seventeen interviews were conducted to gather information on ways to facilitate this transition. Comments reflected the need for better collaboration between engineering schools and engineering firms. The results will provide insight for engineering colleges, faculty members and administrators into the challenges faced by graduates and their aspirations for a smoother transition into employment.

Engineering Co-op and Internship Experiences: The Roles of Workplaces, Academic Institutions and Students

“…However, they found less contribution to increased awareness of societal and community issues and communication skills such as writing reports and presenting materials [31,32]. Studies concurred that communication skills (oral and written) represented a highly important competency for engineers' professional practice [33][34][35]. However, while internship experiences generally contributed to the enhancement of the interpersonal and oral communication skills of engineering students [36,37], their contributions to writing skills were less obvious [31,32,38,39].…”

Collegiate service engagement correlations with engineering job selection and satisfaction

“…This study also found that having plans to continue into engineering careers, realizing those plans shortly after graduation and having strong interest in the technical aspects of engineers all strongly correlated with alumni remaining in engineering careers four years after graduation. Baytiyeh and Naja 24 looked at the perceptions of young engineering professionals about their preparation and work experiences and found that young professionals pointed to challenges with communication, responsibility, and selfconfidence as the most common struggles. This study also found that about one third of the engineering alumni surveyed expressed dissatisfaction, in general, with their engineering job.…”

Engineering Graduates’ Perception of Competencies and Preparation to the Labor Market Transition

“…Current employability models, such as the USEM model (Understanding; Skills; Efficacy beliefs; and Metacognition) [8] and the CareerEDGE model (Experience; Degree subject knowledge, understanding and skills; Generic skills; and Emotional intelligence) [9] provide a crucial link between employability and knowledge, understanding, skills, experience, and personal attributes. This means that, according with that perspectives, not only the set of objective competencies developed, but also the perceptions of mastering such competencies are important to understand future graduates' employability.…”

“…This means that, according with that perspectives, not only the set of objective competencies developed, but also the perceptions of mastering such competencies are important to understand future graduates' employability. The factors that underline how individuals perceive their own employability and the competencies related with that, is still a subject under-reserached [10], [11], particularly in the Engineering field [9].…”