Prospects for Mechatronics Graduates? How do we improve them?James Trevelyan

November 2009

Acknowledgements

• Sabbia Tilli – co-researcher

• Private companies sponsoring research

• Students

Engineering Graduates in Australia 2006

Occupations of those employed

Engineering Education in Australia

Growing up in Australia

Conclusions of this and related work

• We have a plentiful reservoir of ‘other’-employed engineering graduates.

• Engineering employment eludes the majority.

• Canada and some other countries retain more graduates in engineering.

• Cultural background seems to determine engineering and related management employment.

• Engineering education in Australia makes no difference to prospects for migrants (compared to education at home)!

Questions

• Why do we see these results?

• Why is (was) there a skills shortage?

• Longitudinal Study of Engineering Graduates

What do engineers really do?

To Engineer is Human*

* Petroski, H. (1985). To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design. New York, St Martin's Press.

but…

novice

V

Motivation

• Concerns at education misalignment?

• What do engineers do?

• Transition to practice?

• Where are our engineers?

Significance

• help us understand what training is effective

• make the transition easier

• explain the relevance of coursework to students

• improve curriculum design

• explain attrition loss to other occupations?

Aims of Study

• What do novices do?

• What training do they receive?

• What do they learn by other means?

• Perceived deficiencies in undergraduate education.

• Career trajectories.

• Engineering education continues after graduation….. even in the workplace

Method

• 204 participants (participation rate 67% steady after 2.5 years), all disciplines

• 3 –4 surveys each year

• Electronic surveys (& some interviews)

• Qualitative and quantitative questions

Aspects of Engineering Practice

• Coordinationtelephone calls, visits, supervision, meetings, site engineering, monitoring, advocacy, procedures, team work, networking, mentoring

• Engineering Processmanagement systems, project management, change management, configuration control, documentation management, maintenance management, operations management, inventory & logistics

• Design, Review, Testdesign, detailing, review, check compliance with standards, research, component knowledge, testing, commissioning

Working Hours

• Average paid hours/week: 42

• Average unpaid o’time/week: 8

• Highest total 88,

• 10% > 60hrs, 7% < 40 hrs

Time Perception Surveys

Working Time Allocation(% of time, sorted by average time)

Working Time Allocation(% of time, sorted by category)

Main Results

• 60% of time spent on human interaction

– Approx half in real time (face to face, phone)– Approx half through documents, messages– Approx half represents informal technical

coordination, e.g. seeking information from others, getting work done, delivering results on time, detecting and correcting misunderstandings etc.

• 9% of time spent working with hardware

– Rest is desk work or meetings

• 4% average on design & coding (mechatronics 8%)

• 3-18% on calculation & modelling (EE 3%, Petroleum highest)

Some mechatronic graduates in the study

Large automation & controls MNCIndustrial automation & controls, offshore instrumentation commissioning

Large Australian-owned mining company Electrical & controls project engineering, maintenance

Small technology start-upResearch & development on semi-autonomous vehicles, iPhone applications programming

Large engineering MNCInstrumentation & controls, control system design, documentation, writing installation and operation manuals

Large automation & controls MNCIndustrial automation & controls, installation and upgrades to advanced technology equipment

Small instrumentation & controls company SCADA and control systems for small shipsEngineering contracting company Project engineering for large MNC engineering clientsEngineering construction EPCM Project construction engineer

Large engineering MNCHazard and safety systems for offshore and onshore gas plants

Large engineering MNCOwner engineering team gas turbine power plant, business development with new clients

More graduates (total 120 being followed)

Large engineering MNCInstallation of complex instrumentation and controls on offshore equipment, well head completions

Accounting MNC Company performance improvement projects

Large automation & controls MNCOn-site commissioning of advanced control systems software (overseas)

Large materials manufacturer Reliability and maintenance engineering

Large engineering MNC Owner engineering team for wind farm development

Small engineering design consulancyInstrumentation and controls for high-tech railway monitoring systems

Large engineering MNC Corporate strategy, business development

Large mining & resources companyAsset management, development of simulators to forecast commercial and technical performance

Conclusions So Far

• Diversity

• Consistency (averages)

• Insufficient learning opportunities

• Nearly all GDPs could be greatly improved

• Awareness gaps?

GDP = Graduate Development Programme

Recent Developments

• Course experience results for engineering are uniformly poor across Australia

• Mismatch in expectations of graduates

• Communication skill requirements are grossly misunderstood

• Australian engineering projects are failing because of poor communication skills

• Recent education research shows ways to significantly improve teaching effectiveness in technical fundamentals, improving professional skills at the same time.

Recent Feedback

• Novice engineers don’t seem to understand how to create value for clients

• Employers are worried but find it difficult to articulate their concerns

• Key mechatronics stakeholders are concerned at graduate abilities, particularly in technical abilities

• Team projects are reinforcing bad behaviour patterns

What do you need to do?

• Start learning about teaching methods known to improve results:

– Cooperative learning– Peer instruction– Variation theory

• Link development of teaching skill to performance evaluation

• Focus on effective learning of technical fundamentals

– Threshold concepts – useful tool

• Study what your graduates are actually doing.

• Teach them effective listening and coordination skills.