Skill Acquisition in Engineering Education for Achieving Sustainability

Engineering problems interconnected sustainability challenges such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, economic and social instability are becoming increasingly serious concerns for mankind. Engineers have so far failed to address the problems of sustainability. It was found in several survey's that engineering graduates do not possess necessary skills to tackle sustainability related problems. Sustainability is a problem being faced by all disciplines. Engineering Education for Sustainable Development(EESD) has to impart skills required to make the students solve the problems to be faced by the engineering profession. It involves designing courses and curriculum for engineers to enhance knowledge levels, skills and attitudes to solve sustainability problems. This paper will highlight the process of identifying the skills required for Sustainability, problems in curriculum design, implementation and impediments to surmount for sustainability in engineering Education. Education for sustainability involves finding out knowledge levels of the students. This was done through a survey. The skill requirements were studied and finally the list of subjects, topics, teaching-learning methods are identified. This paper will explain the procedure that was followed in making engineering curriculum green, a discussion of teaching learning methods and other issues that arose during the process.