Educating the engineering educators on the development of competences for a global information society

Engineering organisations are increasingly under pressure to perform more efficiently with less people. To manage this structure, organisations have to understand what skills, knowledge and behaviours it needs from engineers who must increasingly practice in a global information society. Engineering educators today and tomorrow need to think of how to place competences for engineers in the context of operating in a global information society. A model to prepare educators is proposed in the paper, taking into account the mindset change required to address the development of competences for engineers where the approach often has to be context-driven to address global work. The model for educating educators is based on a set of learning outcomes supported by aims and objectives related to interpreting competences in a global information society. The core content of the model is discussed and related to specific outcomes for educators to achieve. While consideration is given to what competences are needed for tomorrow's engineering education, it is concluded that more relevant is the need to reconsider existing competences in the context of engineers in global practice. This means that educators need to be prepared to support competence development and evolution against global sociological, political and economic systems that will lead to sustainable competences.