A framework to prepare academic and industry educators to deliver Continuing Engineering Education

The World Economic Forum emphasises the importance of developing individual skills, as part of a “Skills Economy,” and that not developing skills within a workforce is an operational and business risk. Within a multi-generational workforce, this places great emphasis on workforce development, including up- and re-skilling for older generations, and also providing targeted development of younger generations (as part of retaining capable graduates within organisations). This will require capable and effective Continuing Engineering Education (CEE) Educators to design and provide these learning activities (courses) in engineering disciplines. Whilst greater emphasis is now placed on educator training and development in Universities, this training is typically focused on students who have recently left school. It does not necessarily prepare staff to design and deliver training activities for professional engineers. Currently, there is a lack of an outline of key considerations to include in a development course for CEE Educators, and it is this gap that this paper addresses.

This paper will explore the different educational paradigms/frameworks suitable for CEE educators to facilitate the effective learning of practising engineers. Firstly, a review of literature relating to principles and considerations for the education of professional learners, particularly in the area of engineering, was carried out to create a proposed model that would be required in a CEE Educator training programme. A set of recommendations for developing CEE Educator training is proposed.