A STRATEGY FOR INDUSTRYS CONTINUING-EDUCATION NEEDS

Today's engineers face the difficult task of maintaining vitality during a time of rapid technological change. With worldwide competition and massive industrial ''right-sizing'', traditional mentoring and informal training is no longer sufficient to enable young engineers to achieve the levels of competence expected for such professionals. Experienced engineers likewise face similar challenges as technology moves beyond the levels that were current at the time of their formal education. In early 1993, the Education Activities Board of the IEEE approved plans for INDUSTRY 2000, a workshop designed to bring together leaders from industry, technology experts, and continuing education providers, to (1) identify industry's continuing education needs and (2) to define a strategy through which IEEE, industry, and academia can work together to maintain technical vitality of engineering professionals. This paper reports on the results of INDUSTRY 2000, particularly as they apply to Continuing Education within Control Systems technology.