CASE STUDY RESEARCH INTO AUSTRALIAN MECHANICAL ENGINEER ATTRIBUTES

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CASE STUDY RESEARCH INTO AUSTRALIAN MECHANICAL
ENGINEER ATTRIBUTES

• Clive Ferguson
• Deakin University
• Australia

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Johnson Report - 1996

• Stakeholder Review of Engineering Education
  recommended
• a broader engineering education
• development of a number of graduate attributes
• 1997 Engineers Australia response graduate
  attribute (10) outcome focused course
  accreditation.
• functional analysis development of CBET.
• Loosely defined Engineering school advisory
  panel industry members to provide greater
  definition.
• Subjective - influenced by own education and
  experience.

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Context

• Associated historical and contemporary study
• Ref Ferguson, C (2006) Defining the Australian
  Mechanical Engineer European Journal of
  Engineering Education. Vol.31, No.4, August 2006,
  pp.471 - 485 Taylor and Francis Ltd. London.

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Case Study Based Research

• Determination of
• range of attributes,
• employment profile of Australian mechanical
  engineers
• industry/roles to base case studies
• Analysis of attribute significance for each role

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Determination of Attributes (84)

• IEAust attributes (10) expanded by
• Breaking attributes down e. g. communication
  skills broken down into various forms of written
  and oral communication
• Adding attributes more related to mechanical
  engineering e.g. 3D visioning, dynamic visioning.
• Including a wide range of attributes from
  numerous surveys and studies into both
  engineering graduates and graduates in general.
• Including the main subject specialisms within
  mechanical engineering courses (and the various
  mathematics specialisms)
• Including personal attributes (e.g. interpersonal
  skills and time management)

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Industry profile data All mechanical
engineers

• Based on multiple years of APESMA Professional
  Remuneration Survey raw data adjusted for public
  sector bias.
• FOUND 6 Industries - Consulting, Transport
  equipment manufacturing, electricity and gas
  supply, mining and quarrying, construction
  contract and maintenance, and defence - employ
  more than 50 of all Australian mechanical
  engineers.
• FOUND Mechanical engineer manufacturing industry
  employment dominated by transport equipment -
  automobile industry.

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Industry profile data graduate engineers

• Two sources
• APESMA/IEAust Graduate Engineer survey (raw data
  over a number of years)
• Careers Council of Australia Graduate Destination
  Surveys which publish the public sector
  separately from the industries they serve.
  Adjusted using data from the APESMA salary survey.

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Industry Employment Profile
All Mechanical Engineers All Mechanical Engineers Graduate Mechanical Engineers Graduate Mechanical Engineers Graduate Mechanical Engineers
Industry (APESMA Salary survey) Industry (APESMA. Grad. Eng. survey) (Graduate Careers Council)
Consulting and technical Services 16.2 Consulting 15.6 16.4
Transport equipment manufacture 12.6 Mining 9.7 8.5
Electricity and gas supply 8.1 Transport equipment manufacture 9.2 -
Mining and quarrying 6.7 Defence - 9.2
Construction contract and maintenance 6.3 Financial insurance property and business - 8.5
Defence 5.6 Construction 8.1 5.9
Industrial equipment manufacturing 4.7 Electricity and gas 6.0 2.18
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Adjusted Comparison with US and UK
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Selection of companies or organisations

• 6 industries - companies with greatest numbers
  of mechanical engineering respondents to the
  IEAust/APESMA graduate engineer surveys.
• Global attribute significance - all operate
  internationally, have international partnerships
  or are part of global organisations.

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6 industries - 17 Roles (several generic)

• Role based attributes
• Stage 1 engineer a qualified engineer without
  the professional experience to become chartered.
• Stage 2 engineer sufficient experience to
  become chartered.
• New graduate ability

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The survey instrument

• Attribute significance - 5 point Likert scales
  from no use to essential.
• Significance versus ability.
• Graduate ability 5 point Likert scale from
  none to excellent - relative to required
  level of attribute.
• Next sheet key grouped results (to present an
  overall perspective).

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Personal skills

• Personal attributes group excluding foreign
  languages were considered essential for most
  stage 2 roles (time management,
  social/interpersonal skills, flexibility,
  conscientiousness, reliability and the
  expectation and ability to undertake lifelong
  learning).
• Except for time management, all graduates
  abilities were considered significant or better.

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Management and Communication

• Planning and organisational skills - essential
  for all stage 2 engineering roles.
• Others essential for most stage 2 roles
• OHS (also stage 1)
• Team skills (also for stage 1)
• Leadership
• Project management
• Ethics
• Graduate abilities less than moderate were OHS,
  project management and political awareness

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Problem solving /design

• Recognition formulation of a problem
  essential all stage 2
• Application of standards and statutory
  regulations essential in virtually all stage 2
  but worst rated graduate attribute.
• Essential for stage 2 in most roles (those
  underlined are rated less than moderate for
  graduate ability)
• Application of Science and Engineering
  Fundamentals
• Broad Engineering Knowledge Base
• Recognise when to use engineering analysis
• Documentation
• Ability to sense the design looks sound
• The ability to know when to call in a specialist

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Key Findings

• Competency focus in secondary and higher
  education graduate abilities of previous concern
  such as team skills have improved significantly.
• Graduate ability in engineering knowledge base is
  generally rated moderate or less.
• Few roles have every mechanical engineering
  subject specialism highly rated but attributes
  requiring a broad engineering knowledge base
  -highly ranked.

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Recommendation

• Mechanical engineering courses
• 1st degree develop a broader engineering
  knowledge base.
• 2nd degree develop advanced knowledge in selected
  specialist topics appropriate to the career role.