Global Engineers: Creating Needed Solutions Through Intercultural Competence

Continued population growth, increasing industrialisation and the resulting need for ever increasing energy and food stock supplies lead to the huge challenges that mankind is facing. These challenges are both social and technical in nature. The causes and effects of these challenges are crossing continents and are by no means limited by national borders. As a consequence, national efforts alone will not be enough to tackle these challenges. Instead multi-cultural project teams will need to become more prominent. In order to successfully communicate and work in these teams engineers need to have intercultural competence. This paper describes the personal traits that enhance the acquisition of intercultural competence. It explains the important underlying concepts that should be taught to engineers in order to facilitate the acquisition of intercultural competence. It then goes on to suggest suitable training methods and a possible framework within university education to convey the recommended contents.