The environment in which engineers will operate in the future, role expectations from them, and challenges faced by them will be different from what they were in the last century. Roles performed by fresh engineering graduates in the last century were mostly routine and technical, in nature, pertaining primarily to a single discipline of Engineering studied by them.
Engineering students acquired the requisite knowledge from the best private colleges for engineering through classroom lectures and skills through working on experiments in laboratories and workshops. However, role expectations from fresh engineering graduates in the future will be more complex – interdisciplinary and must have skills to use technology tools and interact more intensely with society. Accordingly, components of education (Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude) that need to be imparted will be different, though certain fundamentals remain unchanged. Likewise, the way they have to be taught also will be different. Components of education that need to be taught can be classified into Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes, and Values.
● Knowledge:
The amount of new knowledge created every passing day, in every discipline of Engineering / Technology has been increasing exponentially. At the same time, knowledge requirements for different industries and different roles vary widely. In real life, problems will not surface with the tag of specific disciplines. There is no way that any engineering educational program (under graduation or post-graduation) provided by the best private colleges for engineering can cover all knowledge required as a part of its curriculum. A pragmatic way to address the issue could be: to teach core fundamentals of requisite sciences and engineering principles, besides economics, finance, and social sciences, and students are enabled to learn on their own, new knowledge, in depth, as and when needed. Besides, the students should be equipped to diagnose real-life problems, identify the type of knowledge needed, and more importantly, how to integrate them to solve the problem. In addition, every student must be made conscious of the imperative for life-long learning and ways and means of self-study for continuous learning.
● Skills:
While during the last century, the best private colleges for engineering education focused primarily on imparting technical skills to students; in the future, there is a need to focus more on cognitive and behavioral skills in areas like critical thinking, problem-solving, self-assessment, integrative thinking, self-learning, interpersonal, communication and change management. The industry is increasingly looking for higher-order thinking (HOT) skills like Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating. Besides looking at the requirements of the industry to make the graduating students employable, educational institutions, in the future, must also impart requisite skills to make the students self-employable, either as entrepreneurs or as freelance independent professionals. Essential skills in this regard include entrepreneurship, finance, and marketing.
● Attitudes, Values, and Ethics:
Failure of the education system to systematically address the issues of attitudes and ethics has already created an adverse impact on society. Given this, it is becoming increasingly critical for Educational Institutions to put in efforts to shape the character of the students, by inculcating positive attitudes, with good personal values so that the graduating students can become not only competent professionals but also good human beings and lead happy lives. Students must be made conscious of social, moral, and ethical considerations in their day-to-day work as well as in decision-making. It is too simplistic to assume that a course on humanities in the curriculum is adequate to bring about such an attitudinal change. It needs systematic inputs, followed by practice, accompanied by patient counseling so that the principles are ingrained in the minds of the students and become part and parcel of the personality of the students. The best private colleges for engineering provide a holistic approach with industry-approved education & training to prepare an efficient workforce of Indian engineers.
In Summation
The next few decades will see major changes in the environment, driven by not only technological developments but also changing society. Future engineering education must reinvent itself and re-engineer itself to make it relevant for the industry and society, at large. It needs concerted efforts from all the stakeholders to effect the transition smoothly and successfully and build a strong edifice for the future of engineering education. The best private colleges for engineering dedicate their efforts and resources to equip engineering aspirants of the current era with essential engineering education and training to operate in real-time situations. The objective of this article is to ensure a detailed understanding of engineering education and its contribution to shaping the future of India.
