Launching a Task Force on Engineering Skills

The recent inaugural SEFI Debate, held in Brussels the 7th of April, highlighted the pressing need for a deeper under-standing of the challenges facing engineering education in Europe in relation to engineering skills. The question of whether engineering graduates have the skills that both they and industry require for competitive Europe is regu-larly raised. The extent to which the question is raised in different European countries is not clear and SEFI believes that it is well placed to collate information, through its network, to establish this. This is the reason why SEFI Presi-dent, Professor Kamel Hawwash, announced the establishment of a SEFI Task Force on Engineering Skills (TFES) at the Debate and he is now keen that we move ahead with it.
The remit of the Task Force on Engineering Skills will be as follows:

Establish the committee with a good spread of membership.
Collate most recent reports on engineering skills from member countries.
Analyse the data and develop a position paper.
Set out the scope for future work in this area and the mechanisms for this, including possible grant applications.

If you would like to contribute to this or to join the TFES, please email Mr Jacques Schibler communication_officer@sefi.be by the 15th of May . It would be useful to have an indication of the reason for your interest and the contribution that you can bring from your own country.