Graduate Attributes: Industry and Graduate Perceptions

Graduate attributes are the non-discipline specific skills and qualities that graduates need to have developed by the time they complete their undergraduate engineering course. The National Centre for Maritime Engineering and Hydrodynamics (NCMEH) at the Australian Maritime College (AMC) has developed an attribute spectrum that addresses the technical and generic requirements of the engineering programmes as a continuum. In order to ascertain the relevance of the AMC graduate attributes, a survey of the industry stakeholders and graduates was conducted with the proficiency level, judged against the Conceive Design Implement Operate (CDIO) criteria. The findings show that industry desires a high level of proficiency across the full range of graduate attributes and in particular seeks strong competency in the so called ‘soft skills’ such as communication skills and working with information. The graduates they have employed were assessed as operating at an overall standard slightly below that desired, particularly in areas such as: ‘Negotiate the business environment’ and ‘Behave as a professional’. This data has been used as valuable information in the continuous cycle of improvement in AMC engineering courses, aiding the redesign of the course and units to ensure that the appropriate coverage of graduate attributes is achieved.