Ingenieur Vol.81 January-March 2020 | Page 46

FEATURE INGENIEUR Washington Accord- Outcome-Based Education Approach – A Practitioner’s Perspective By Ir. Rocky HT Wong Anyone who reads the IEA’s policy paper on: Graduate Attributes and Professional Competencies; Version 3: 21 June 2013, will appreciate that the first step (or phase) of becoming a certified (or a registered, or licensed engineer), is to get an engineering education, stated therein as: “The fundamental purpose of engineering education is to build a knowledge base and attributes to enable the graduate to continue learning and proceed to formative development that will develop the competencies required for independent practice.” Institutions of Higher Learning educate bright graduates and Industry trains sharp engineers. The term ‘graduates to continue learning’ implies learning as a university student, through a substantial volume courses, cannot cover all aspects of working knowledge and skills required in Industry. Hence, lifelong learning for engineering graduates is very relevant (i.e. graduates to continue learning). Essentially, engineering education is to provide engineering graduates with the breadth and depth of fundamentals and principles in STEAM (i.e. Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) studies. These give graduates the necessary tools to solve complex problems (now and in the future) and enable them to design and create new technologies and engineering processes. However, a four-year period of engineering education to equip engineering graduates with substantial volume of STEAM studies is not in itself sufficient. Students are expected to participate in extra curricular activities such as sports and games, and other social and societal events so that they will have a healthy body and mind with wholesome characteristics to become respected professionals in due course. 44 VOL 81 JANUARY-MARCH 2020