Professional Skills Portfolio for a Progressive Engineering Education

At the 2013 launch of the return to work scheme, “Springboard” in Dublin, it was stated that employers were seeking staff with enhanced language, presentation, communication, coping, and team-working skills. Graduates without these skills were finding it more difficult to gain permanent employment and were more likely to find themselves out of work unless they developed these skills. Enhancing personal development skills in education requires a revision of existing programmes. Not alone will these skills open new doors of opportunity for those who have lost their jobs during the recession, but should help sustain them going forward. The education of the modern engineer and technical experts for the changing and demanding world of work in the 21st century must consist of a multi-disciplined integrated approach. The vital and invaluable technical skills should be explained, practiced and demonstrated concurrently with equally essential and crucial pedagogy and so called “soft” skills. The ability to work independently, to manage and communicate effectively with people from other disciplines will yield dividends for future engineers. Skills such as problem solving, computer literacy and business acumen together with company specific skills, technical dexterity and an ability to understand the commercial goals of Industry must form an integral part of engineering education. There is currently, calls from industry for educational changes that enhance basic economic knowledge, management skills, learning to learn, and competencies in communications and teamwork. One of the challenges herein, is that programmes should provide capabilities for graduates to handle changing economic and cultural working environments [1]. This broad and integrated learning will help prepare the graduate for an increasingly complex modern working environment. Educators have a critical role to play in addressing the skills gap between education, environment and Industr

A Socio-Economic Analysis of Student Population in Third Level Education.

The pursuit of knowledge and the availability of an educational qualification has always been an aspiration of most citizens in developed and less developed economies worldwide. In modern Ireland, the educational system has prided itself as one of the more advanced models vis-a-vis student quality and educational participation structured and quality educational population. Eighty per cent of Irish school children now sit their Leaving Certificate, and there has been a fivefold increase in third level enrolments over the last thirty years. Despite such admirable statistics, large levels of socio-economic depravation still exist in our third level education, so much so that a child of a professional has seven times greater chance of attending third level education than the child of an unskilled manual worker

Feedback Dynamics in the Academic and Industrial Environment

Feedback is essential in all companies, in society and in educational environments. We learn, improve and develop from it in our examinations, group work, work environment and relationships. Feedback however must be supported with good communications and be consistent. In the classroom environment this means providing feedback in a positive and supportive manner, and being consistent to all. Most if not all managers and leaders, including lecturers have not undertaken any form of training in feedback methods and therefore it is not translated effectively, causing stress or misguidance to students and colleagues. This paper highlights the importance of good feedback, how it can be provided effectively and why it is rarely communicated. Students are consistently asking for feedback and highlight it in quality reports and surveys as a major weakness in the delivery of modules and course work. Some of the issues raised are associated with poor preparation, habits and styles of delivery. With the increasing requirement from Validation and Accreditation authorities to verify if learners are receiving appropriate feedback, this is one area where staff and managers can enhance the quality of the learning environment. Feedback is not only a two way process between lecturers and students but is also a critical activity between management and staff in developing a healthy working environment. Relevant feedback to first year students in particular via verbal or electronic means sets the standard for subsequent years. It is also essential that the quality work undertaken by lecturers to students is acknowledged and supported by management

Alternative naming strategies : family versus individual brand names

Increased competition in the consumer goods marketplace has resulted in too many brands chasing too few consumers. In an attempt to ease pressure on margins, and both brand and product range profitability, marketers would be well advised to reinspect their policies towards brand naming and the attendant costs associated with those policies. Is it really necessary for each new product to be individually named? If it is, then what are the strategic and financial implications of this decision? Why is it that the practice in some companies is to resort to a string of unrelated brand names whereas the practice elsewhere is to use an umbrella family name, with or without, a brand name as a suffix? The answers to such questions are by no means obvious and closer inspection of the issues relating to naming policy fails to yield any consensus let alone a definitive approach. This article seeks to depict the alternative naming strategies engaged by marketers and to focus on those considerations that would favour a family name in preference to an individualised brand name. The article concludes with recommendations that are drawn from current literature and the experience of marketers with a view to determining those circumstances that may influence the formulation of a more appropriate naming policy. <br /