Graduate engineering skills a literature review & call for rigorous methodological approaches

What sort of working world do our engineering graduates face? Engineering has become a global profession, where professional skills are as important as the intellectual prowess gained by obtaining the qualification itself. First, we must consider what skills are needed for engineers to meet the challenges of Industry 4.0. Academics who wish to engage in activities to enhance engineering education might therefore initially seek to identify which skills are most important and there is a wealth of literature addressing different viewpoints which adds further complexity to evaluating such studies. This paper reports on two independent systematic reviews of literature to identify the most commonly discussed skills that engineering graduates require from the focus of different stakeholders. The first study audited 129 papers and identified the list of most commonly discussed skills, which was then condensed into a list of 17 professional skills. Independently, a review of the lists of skills used in 16 quantitative studies was carried out in relation to engineering skills requirements for graduate engineers specifically. The results of both studies are compared to highlight the similarities and differences between the results of each method. The work also aims to highlight concerns over providing lists of skills in survey questionnaires without a rigorous research methodology. It is hoped that this paper will generate discussion and aims to raise additional research questions to initiate more in-depth research, into the differing views and contextual relationships of skills' listings.