Personal Skills in Chemical Engineering Graduates

Grant, Colin; Dickson, Brian

doi:10.1205/ece.05004

Cited by 43 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…To bridge the gap between the chemical engineering curriculum and the practical skills desired by employers in the chemical industry (Grant & Dickson, 2006), new methods of teaching and learning are needed. Pedagogical tools that enhance situated and experiential learning, active learning, and the development of 21 st century transferable skills are most needed in chemical engineering education.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions of the use of virtual reality games for chemical engineering education and professional training

Udeozor

Toyoda

Abegão

et al. 2021

Higher Education Pedagogies

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Virtual Reality (VR) games and simulations are increasingly being used to provide highly interactive, engaging and contextual learning experiences for learners in otherwise risk-prone environments, such as those obtained in chemical engineering and industrial domains. Understanding the intention of users towards this technology for education and training purposes is thus of paramount importance for academics and practitioners. This study examines the perceptions of chemical engineering students and professionals towards the use of VR games for health and safety education and training, and discusses the practical implications of findings. The study found that students and professionals believe that IVR games are useful for learning. A comparison of the two groups revealed that professionals were more accepting of the technology compared to students. Students presented concerns with the use of the technology for classroom learning. The paper concludes by outlining the implications of the findings to higher education practice.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions of the use of virtual reality games for chemical engineering education and professional training

Udeozor

Toyoda

Abegão

et al. 2021

Higher Education Pedagogies

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show abstract

“…Across the world, higher education has been moving towards outcome-based approach where universities are required to identify the knowledge, skills and attributes that they expect their graduate to have achieved (Grant & Dickson, 2006). Engineering education in South Africa is emerging and continually changing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Work integrated learning competencies: Industrial supervisors’ perspectives

Makhathini

2016

PiE

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Research on student-learning outcomes indicates that university graduates do not possess relevant skills required by the industry such as leadership, emotional intelligence, problem solving, communication, decision-making skills and the ability to function in a multicultural environment. Currently, engineering graduates are expected to perform within a diverse working environment, hence the need to possess appropriate professional competencies and attributes. This paper seeks to identify strengths and potential shortfalls of work integrated learning (WIL) for students placed in the engineering sector. It presents findings from a study of workplace supervisors of chemical engineering students at one university of technology on the coastal seaboard. Supervisors from a variety of chemical industries completed a WIL students' competency assessment, which measures 23 work-related competencies using a 4-point Likert scale. The competencies were organised under two broad themes of cognitive and behavioural skills. The two themes were further broken down into five sub-themes, namely ability, performance, judgement, attitude and suitability. This defines the common characteristics of superior performers within the workplace. The results show that most students meet the standard expectation on the cognitive or 'hard' skills but seem to lack the behavioural or 'soft' skills. There were statistically significant differences between cognitive and behavioural skills. The findings from this study suggest that cooperative education programmes need to do more in developing the students' soft skills before they go out for WIL placement to ensure effectiveness and broad-based technical competence.

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“…Engineers need strong communication skills to effectively convey ideas to a range of audiences (Kamarudin et al 2012). Many studies have identified communication as one of the most important transferrable employment skills -one that often influences job performance and career advancement (Grant and Dickson 2006;Leydens et al 2008;Poe et al 2010;Lopes et al 2015;Bercich et al 2018;Young and Ashman 2019). Despite the importance of communication skills, several studies have identified communication-related shortcomings in recent graduates, such as convoluted writing, imprecise or inaccurate content, and an inability to meaningfully Several approaches to coupling general communication skills and discipline-specific technical communication skills exist.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technical Communications in an Environmental Engineering Curriculum: A Framework for Analysis and Continual Improvement

McCollum

Pfluger

Butkus

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

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The ability to effectively communicate technical information is an important skill for engineers, especially young engineers entering the workforce upon completion of their education. Undergraduate environmental engineering programs normally address technical communications, but some do not provide intentionally placed discipline-specific technical communication experiences designed to progressively increase communication skills through the curriculum. Conducting a crosswalk of graded events with a technical communication component across a curriculum can help an institution understand the placement of technical communication graded events and identify opportunities for improvement. This study presents a survey-based approach for gathering information about all technical communication graded events within an environmental engineering curriculum and a method for analysis using a longitudinal crosswalk of all applicable courses from freshman to senior year. Results from this study indicate that the number of graded technical communication events in our program increases longitudinally from freshman to senior year. Further, the number of individually completed events and written events were highest in the sophomore year, with team events and oral communication events increasing in the junior and senior years. Additionally, the weighting of graded events shifted longitudinally through major courses. Graded events worth < 5% of the course grade were most prevalent in the sophomore year, and events worth ≥ 5% occurred most frequently in the senior year. Implications for our university's environmental engineering program are discussed, to include opportunities for scaffolding events across courses. The methods presented in this study can be used by other environmental engineering programs to identify gaps in technical communication education and methods for improvement within their curriculum.

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Personal Skills in Chemical Engineering Graduates

Cited by 43 publications

References 1 publication

Perceptions of the use of virtual reality games for chemical engineering education and professional training

Perceptions of the use of virtual reality games for chemical engineering education and professional training

Work integrated learning competencies: Industrial supervisors’ perspectives

Technical Communications in an Environmental Engineering Curriculum: A Framework for Analysis and Continual Improvement

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