Who, What, How? Tackling Skills Challenges: Future Relevance, Stakeholder Differences, And Teaching Hurdles

The Engineering Skills Special Interest Group (SIG) ran a workshop on the current challenges in teaching engineering skills. This workshop employed the “world café” participatory method where attendees visited three tables for a structured discussion with a member of the SIG. Each table posed a different question: On the What? table we discussed which skills are most relevant for future practitioners. The Who? table focussed on the differences in the way that various professional skills are conceptualised by main stakeholders. Finally, at the How? table we discussed the facilitators and barriers in designing and delivering skills education. The outcome of the workshop presented here is a mapping of skills in terms of present and future importance to attendees and their countries, and a classification of stakeholders in terms of macro, meso, micro level when considering their influence over skill conceptualisation and realisation.