The Product Developer : Education and Professional Role

• The aim of this paper is to present results from a study examining the relation between the educational background and professional roles with engineers engaged in product development. Derived from previous studies, the product development engineer ought to be a multifaceted engineer, knowledgeable and skilled in several fields. This engineer should work interdisciplinary, integrative and with the aim to be creative and innovative. By using a substantial data set consisting of 300 engineers in Swedish product development organizations, we derive some important research propositions. The data shows that there are correlations between organizational responsibilities and educational program, in particular regarding focus on design, system integration, project management and technical coordination. If we want to understand how the engineering education affects the professional role of an engineer; we believe that it is critical to further investigate the developed propositions. One example is mechanical engineers; the data shows that the studied mechanical engineers rarely work with design. Our proposition is therefore to investigate the identity and legitimacy of these programs to further clarify the professional role.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Annan teknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Other Engineering and Technologies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Engineering education

Product development

Professional roles

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)