Preparing engineers for 2035: transforming Australia’s engineering education for emerging roles and expectations

The Australian Council of Engineering Deans (ACED) recently concluded a project (‘Engineering 2035’) to reshape Australian engineering education for future professional engineering graduates. Consultations with industry leaders and others identified the need to strengthen graduate engineers’ capacity for multi-disciplinary and cross-functional teamwork, with greater public accountability. Focus groups of prospective students revealed weak understanding of the growing range of opportunities offered by an engineering qualification of this nature. The corresponding curriculum transformation must ensure greater focus on transferable skills and contexts are delivered alongside technical content. We envisage more industry-based, problem and project-based pedagogies. We found that the engineering academic workforce is positive to such changes. Its recent adaptation of teaching methods to accommodate COVID-19 restrictions gives confidence of a good response to the emerging needs. The project identified 22 Calls for Action to the schools of engineering and ACED, and to industry, government and the professional accrediting body, Engineers Australia.