New Ways of Teaching Working LifeRelated Skills to Engineering Students

Dr Liisa Kairisto-MertanenDirector of Education (Dean)Technology, Environment and Business

Dr Olli MertanenVice rectorTurku Polytechnic

• The future society– competitive, dynamic, learning welfare society – positive attitude to entrepreneurship– information society combined with the wellfare state– clusters which will form learning networks– business combined with services and knowledge

intensive products

Background for the study

Turku Polytechnic

is the largest University of Applied Sciences in Finland

• annual intake of students1800• 1300 degrees every year • alltogether 8300 students• 35 degree programmes• 7 fields of study

Turku Polytechnic Organisation Chart

1.8.2004

ExecutiveBoard

CityCouncil

City Board

PolytechnicDelegation

PolytechnicBoard

Rector

ViceRectors

Arts Academy Turku: • Communication and Media Arts • Fine Arts • Music

• Performing Arts Mynämäki: • DesignSalo: • Design

Health Care Turku: • Biomedical Laboratory Science • Dental Hygiene

• Emergency Care • Nursing • Radiography and Radiotherapy• Care of the Elderly and Long-term Patients (post-graduate degree programme)

Salo: • Nursing (in Finnish and in English)

Life Sciences and Business Turku: • Biotechnology and Food Technology

• Business • Business Information Technology • Laboratory Technology• Företagsekonomi • International Business (in English)

Technology, Environment and Business Turku: • Automotive and Transportation Engineering

• Civil Engineering • Mechanical and Production Engineering• Sustainable Development

Mynämäki: • RestorationParainen: • Fisheries and Environmental CareRaisio: • Business • International Business (in English)Uusikaupunki: • Business Information Technology • Business Logistics

Telecommunication and e-BusinessTurku: • Electronics • Library and Information Services

• Telecommunications Engineering • Information Technology (in English)

Salo: • Business • Business Information Technology (in Finnish and in English) • International Business / Internationale Betriebswirtschaft • Telecommunications Engineering

Well-being Services Turku: • Beauty Care • Occupational Therapy • Physiotherapy

• Production and Management of Services • Social ServicesLoimaa: • Business • Business Information Technology

• Social Services

Continuing Education and Services• Corporate Services • Development of Enterprises and Organisations• Intensive Courses • Open Polytechnic • Professional Specialisation Studies• Seminars

Development andAdministration• Administrative Services• Educational Services• Innovation Services

• to explore what is the real engineering competence needed by the working life in the traditional fields of engineering

• electronics and electro technical industry

• mechanical engineering

• civil engineering

• to describe how the working life is changing• to explore what requirements do these changes cause to

the education• methods of anticipation• some real life examples

Aim of the paper

• Characteristics of the changing professional life– information society– learning never stops– everybody has to have

understanding about markets and business life

– entrepreneurial mind is required– ability to produce innovation

becomes important– R & D faces global competition

Engineering education and the future employers

• methods used– business forecast and analysis– enqueries to enterprices

• separation between quantitative and qualitative needs• anticipation reports• noticing week signals calls for close co-operation between

education and working life• it is necessary to find enough courage to act upon the new

requirements

Anticipating the required changes in education

• Changes in the society call for changes in the competence of future employees, they have to work– in a global environment– in the customer surface– in a learning network– using interdisciplinary competence– constantly upgrading their competence– in teams– solving problems– in unsecure circumstances

• Well qualified staff is a central strategic competitive factor • Knowledge and people possessing it becomes important

The Changing EngineeringCompetence

• The learning network in the faculty of technology, environment and business– gross-disciplinary environment– organisational learning

• A learning organization is “an organization that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future”. (Senge 1992, 14)

• Organizational learning is a three stage process that includes information acquisition, information dissemination and shared interpretation. (Sinkula 1994)

• defining the present situation, defining a shared vision and working under creative tension

• producing something new and innovative

Examples from Turku Polytechnic, no 1

• According to Senge (1992) the learning attributes in an organization are:– shared vision– personal mastery– working with mental models– team learning – systems thinking

Basic requirements forcreating a learning organization

BusinessAdm. Raisio

Sustainable Development

Mechanical Engineering

Automotive andTransportation

Eng.

BusinessAdm. Uki

Fisheries andEnviromental

Care

CivilEngineering

D P in Int.Business, Raisio

Restoration

Business InformationTechnology

Learning Network in

Technology, Environment and

Business

Entre-preneurship

New methods o

f

study

Life-long

learning

Multi

professionalism

Globalisation

Flexible Study Modules

Business

know-how to

everybody

The arrows represent the megatrends in education up till year 2012

• The practice enterprice project– promoting entrepreneurship is found important in EU– According to the Green Book of EU in higher education

the curricula should systematically include entrepreneurship and management studies in non economic curricula

– Finland was placed on the below average group of countries concerning entrepreneurship

– There is a positive statistically significant assosiation between national economic growth and national level of entrepreneurship

Examples from Turku Polytechnic, no 2

What is the practice enterprice project?

• Students involved– IT-engineering, business

administration, data prosessing, nursing, library and information services

– Business administration and data processing where instruction is in english

– Programming (University of Turku)

• groups of 10-15 people• Compulsory studies of 15

ECTS

• Methods:– Problem based learning– Learning by doing– Independent learning

• Learning environment:– Different information

technology tools available – Office like– Gross disciplinary

• Close connections to existing business life in the region

Achievements of the practice enterprice project• Many important targets are

met• Students develop

– team-working skills– proactive attitude– self-reliance

• Students get basic knowledge about running an enterprise

• Students start to co-operate with other students from different disciplines

• Applying a co-operative as a learning environment– a co-operative is an autonomous association of persons

united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically controled enterprice

– central values: • self-help• self-responsibility• democracy• equality• equity• solidarity

Examples from Turku Polytechnic, no 3

• The method of learning– good integration of theory and practice – experimental learning– students find work for the co-operative and get

credits by executing the tasks– The students have economic responsibility and

in this way are working as entrepreneurs

Examples from Turku Polytechnic, no 3

• Education has to be adapted to correspond to the changing needs in the environment– the content– the methods used

• The most important thing today is to deliver general ideas, skills and attitudes not detailed knowledge

• Students must be made to construct their knowledge by themselves

• Future engineers are innovative teamplayers who can communicate and act effectively in a global world

Conclusion