Exploring professional roles for early career engineers: a systematic literature review

Abstract

Nowadays, employees have to take a more flexible and proactive approach to their working lives, involving the continuous management of their own employability, to meet the challenges of a global economy characterised by rapid change (Tomlinson 2007). Higher education institutions increasingly acknowledge their responsibility to guide students, both in their academic growth and in their career development (Burke et al. 2017; National Academy of Engineering 2018).Consequently, the educational field is challenged to explicitly trigger students' reflection on their professional future. Narrow view on engineeringIn engineering education, students' perceptions of their professional future is a focus that deserves due attention. Research indicates that, even close to graduation, many engineering students remain ABSTRACT It is recognised that engineers end up in a wide variety of engineering positions and that the importance of professional competencies might vary accordingly. However, most studies regarding professional competencies, employability or career guidance fail to address this variety in professional roles. This systematic literature review aims to identify professional roles for early career engineers and explores the defining attributes. Twentyfour publications were selected for inclusion by screening and appraising results obtained from three databases. Three frameworks that fulfilled the analysing criteria described similar roles focusing on innovation, optimisation and customisation. The majority of studies investigated professional competencies as identifying attributes, but inconsistency in and a lack of definitions hindered to determine the distinct professional competencies per role. Further research is recommended to identify role attributes and to investigate how a professional roles framework can support career development in engineering education, more particular in creating professional and self-awareness.

Professional competencies in engineering education: the PREFERed-way

“…An extensive literature review made by Craps et al (2020) showed a huge diversity of possible professional roles frameworks, depending on the goals and the context. Since the PREFER project was in need of a flexible and validated professional roles framework that focuses on young engineers (max 3 years after graduation), transcending the disciplines, we further developed the model suggested by Hofland et al (2015) as it showed high similarities with the model of Spinks et al (2007).…”

“…This allowed us to develop the PREFER model. However, in an attempt to identify distinguishing competencies, we were hindered by the inconsistency of methods and a lack of well-defined competencies (Craps et. al.…”

Comparison of first-year student conceptions of their future roles as engineers between Belgium, Ireland, and The Netherlands

“…In a systematic literature review, Craps and colleagues found similarities between the models of Hofland et al, Kamp and Klaassen, and Spinks et al, identifying engineers focusing on innovation, optimisation, and customisation. 11,[26][27][28] Kamp and Klaassen described a fourth role, the contextual engineer, emphasising the diversity and different cultures or contexts. However, Spinks et al suggested incorporating future-oriented aspects due to globalisation and rapid change within all roles.…”

“…13 Based on the results of these two papers and encouraged by industry, the central focus of the European Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliance PREFER project (Professional Roles and Employability of Future EngineeRs) was defined: the validation of a framework of professional roles for engineers and the implementation of dedicated tests and skills education in engineering curricula to train students for those roles. 14 In this project, the professional roles model is further optimized and validated in close collaboration with industry and the Engineering professional bodies in the three partner countries of this project: Belgium, Ireland, and the Netherlands. 15,16 As part of that, based on mixed methods research at KU Leuven, detailed key competencies were identified for the three different roles.…”

Direct Outcomes and Win-Win Relationships Between University Careers Advisors and Graduate Recruiters

“…Collaborative approaches have tended to be ad-hoc, temporary and focused on shortterm gains within the current academic year or recruitment cycle making it difficult to establish sustainable relationships (Vick & Robertson, 2018). Communication can also be challenging as the same terminology is used by GRs and UCAs inconsistently (Craps et al, 2021). This has often led to universities and organisations attempting to 'do their own thing' despite sharing broadly the same objectives of securing employment for their graduates and securing early careers talent for their organisation, respectively (Donald et al, 2021).…”