My First Post

As the article states, tertiary engineering education has trained the future engineers to systematically analyze the complex information and apply a systematic approach in designing solutions in view of the various problems layman, businesses or government face. This is possible as engineers are trained to be able to visualize the various situations in a holistic view, where they will then gather more relevant data from the affected parties by conducting focus groups, interviews or observation sessions.

However, there will be obstacles like short deadlines, unresponsive respondents hindering the engineers when they are on the job, they may even at times face restrictions passed down by legal laws and standards. In order to overcome the difficulties of collecting important relevant data, engineers have to be equipped with interpersonal communication and soft skills where they will need to get the users commitment and also get management support. These soft skills play an important role as it will help the engineers to better understand the problems contributing to great challenges like creating an ideal handphone, machine or even service procedures to create more satisfied users and happy management as needs of the related parties are met with acceptable standards.

Furthermore, with the common goal of globalization, Singapore university such as NUS have offered more overseas or local opportunities for the training of students including engineering students to experience and learn skills and technical knowledge from engineer schools in other countries and the real working environment, in this way they can be exposed to more knowledge and case studies and how problems are tackled in order to develop sound solutions. This will help produce engineers that are well poised to provide regional and world leadership in engineering.

The article also states that the scope of an engineer has expanded into the service sector as they are more becoming more technology and knowledge intensive. Given the flexibility of engineering education, it has led to a high demand for engineering trained students in both the service and manufacturing in order to contribute to the growth of the new challenges.