Communication skills, especially academic writing skills in English, are vital for a successful career in the global scientific community. Finnish engineering students, however, seem to encounter problems when preparing their scientific publications in English as a second language (ESL) for international forums. Thus, these skills should be enhanced at all levels of academic education to promote students’ development as experts in their field. The paper describes challenges faced by engineering students in academic writing and seeks solutions to promote students’ learning process. In addition to communication issues, the paper enlightens the environment and conditions in which the engineering students operate. By an interpretive study, the paper examines texts written by Finnish engineering students. The qualitative textual analysis is based on Systemic Functional Linguistics. Further, the paper discusses learning of academic writing from the perspective of situated learning. Based on the textual analysis, the paper identifies challenges and problems in academic writing, namely unfamiliarity with publication practices, grammar and terminology problems, unawareness of academic discourse strategies, such as hedging and the use of cohesive devices, and challenges with handling feedback. To enhance students’ competences in academic communication within their discipline, guidance and training of communication skills should be integrated into relevant technical and academic contexts throughout the engineering studies. Thus, in addition to thesis writing, argumentation and writing skills and the use of databases can be enhanced for instance by writing course reports in the form of academic papers. Individual consultation also plays a key role in the situated learning process.

Background: Research on gender differences and practical initiatives to attract girls to engineering are often carried out at the macro level where science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are aggregated into an entity called STEM. Purpose/Hypothesis: This article challenges the aggregated approach, analyzes gender differences among science and engineering applicants in Finland, and discusses the implications of the findings for engineering education and intervention initiatives.Design/Method: The data consist of the application choices of all applicants to Bachelor studies in Finland in 2016 (151,369 individuals), from which two groups were selected: persons whose first application choice was engineering/ technology and persons whose first choice was natural sciences or mathematics.The application choices of these individuals (in total 9,104) are statistically described and analyzed. Results: Engineering/technology (TECH) and natural sciences and mathematics (SCIMA) subjects are not perceived as alternative options by female applicants. Almost 60% of all female TECH applicants and more than 50% of the female SCIMA applicants apply only to their respective programs. Moreover, TECH applicants considering other options prefer other subjects to SCIMA and vice versa.Conclusions: Encouraging more girls to study STEM is not a sufficient solution for attracting more women to engineering. Instead of or in addition to encouraging girls to study science and mathematics in K-12 education, it is necessary to open the black box of technology and help young people better understand what engineering is about. K E Y W O R D S gender diversity, higher education, identity, STEM

Johanna Naukkarinen received her M.Sc. degree in chemical engineering from Helsinki University of Technology in 2001, her D.Sc. (Tech) degree in knowledge management from Tampere University of Technology in 2015, and her professional teacher qualification from Tampere University of Applied sciences in 2013. She is currently working as a post-doctoral researcher and project manager with the School of Energy Systems at Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT with main research interests related to technology and society, gender diversity and engineering education.

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Formation of professional identity is a process where individuals attempt to bring together the social expectations set for them as professionals and their own interests and values. The cultural landscape of engineering is masculine in various ways, which can be challenging especially for female engineers who need to match the cultural expectations with their personal identities. So far, few studies have compared the professional identities of early-career men and women engineers. This study aims to understand the professional identities of newly graduated Finnish male and female engineers by analysing their perceptions of the importance and development of professional engineering skills. An analysis of crosssectional survey data of more than 4000 early-career engineers suggests some gender differences related to professional identities and indicates that the observed differences in values and perceived skills can put women at a greater risk of dropping out of an engineering career.