What do engineers do all day? I’m not talking about the duration and frequency of coffee breaks. I’m talking about all the amazing and complicated work done between caffeine hits. Engineers work on job sites, in offices, in workshops, in factories, and in the boardroom. But what do they actually do?
A Model of an Engineer
I’ve done some searching on this in the past for my own development. I wanted to know whether I was doing the right thing. How do I measure myself against some fixed standard? It was then that I came across the Model.
The Model is actually called the Engineering Competency Model. You can check out the Model on the AAES website here.
Below we’ll have a closer look at the format and structure of the Model. Let’s take it apart!
The Tiers
Whilst the Tiers are shaped like a pyramid, this doesn’t mean that the ones at the top are more important. Instead the Tiers at the bottom are more general, and the skills become more specialised near the top.
Tiers 1, 2 and 3 are general skills required across all engineering, whilst those above become more industry specific. It is impossible to know all things, so we must specislise and rely upon teamwork to cover all areas (more on this in another post!).
Let’s take a closer look at each Tier.
Tier 1 – Personal Effectiveness Competencies
These are often called ‘soft skills’ and are important not only for engineering, but for all life. Competencies such as Lifelong Learning, Professionalism and Initiative form the most foundational of competencies in the Model. These will get you a long way in any walk of life!
Tier 2 – Academic Competancies
The next Tier covers competencies that are learned through formal education. These will aid you throughout any occupation. Reading, Writing and Mathematics are included, as well as Critical and Analytical Thinking and Communication.
Tier 3 – Workplace Competencies
In Tier 3 we are starting to get more specialised into competencies that cover work styles and self management. These might not help in all occupations, but are important for a lot of them. Business Fundamentals, Working with Tools and Technology, Seeking and Developing Opportunities, and Creative Thinking are some examples from this Tier.
Tier 4 – Industry-Wide Technical Competencies
In Tier 4 we are getting into the specialised sections of the Model. In this Tier, only the most senior of engineers will have the chance to get a full level of knowledge. Even then it’s unlikely.
As I mentioned before, it’s near impossible to know everything. Instead, a working knowledge of everything in this Tier means you can effectively move within jobs in engineering, and not get stuck in one specialisation. As such, this Tier is focused on awareness, not deep knowledge.
Manufacturing and Construction, Ethics, Sustainability and Environmental Impact, and Quality Control are in this Tier. As we will go into in further posts, this Tier is one that I myself struggle with. There are many items included that I simply have haven’t had the exposure to yet.
Tier 5 – Industry-Sector Functional Areas
Tier 5 is a space in the Model for any industry bodies to add specifics that are unique to that industry. As a result, this section is left blank on the Model.
Higher Tiers
The top of the pyramid is crowned with two more groups of competencies – Management Competencies and Occupational Specific Requirements.
Management Competencies cover areas such as Staffing, Networking, Developing and Mentoring, and Preparing and Evaluating Budgets. These items become more important as seniority increases, and as more management responsibility is entrusted.
Occupation Specific Requirements are just that – skills and methods that are really only useful for the job at hand. These would not be widely used in the rest of the industry. A mining engineer would not need to know much about quality standards for food manufacturing, for instance. This area is left blank on the Model and allows individual organisations some space to fill these in.
The Model in Practice
I’ve used the Model in recent years in my own development. A few years ago I realised I had done a lot of ad hoc learning on the job, but I had no holistic overview.
After a bit of a search I came across the Model and loved its attention to detail instantly. It first gave a great overview of what a great engineer looks like, but then also broke this down into manageable chunks that are immediately comparable with day-to-day life. I’ve seen other competency models in the past, but they have only covered the high level details, so there is a lot of ambiguity. That just doesn’t cut it for me!
After self-assessing against the model, I was able to come up with a heat-map of my own engineering competencies. Combining this with some other great personality and knowledge self assessments I had done, I was able to get a great picture of my strengths, as well as my learning opportunities. It was these learning opportunists that directed my learning and focuses for the rest of the year.
In preparation for the this blog post, I completed another self-assessment against the Model. Happily, I have improved in some areas, but I’m still struggling with a lot of the Competencies in Tier 4. I simply haven’t had the chance yet to dig into topics such as Quality Assurance and Public Policy. It gives me something to focus on in the future!
I have also recommended the Model as a guide for new engineers in their own development. It is such a succinct collection of the requirements of the field, that it is indispensable. I wish I had access to it when I first started out.
For new and prospective engineers and their educators, it’s a great guide for what is important in the field. There are so many skills listed that are either glossed over or simply not taught at the tertiary level of teaching. These are developed instead at the secondary and primary levels of education. It’s important to focus on strengthening these areas to tackle the old problem of technically strong engineers with poor ‘soft skills’. I should know, it’s taken me years of my professional life to even get even a working understanding of skills such as Communication, Leadership and Mentoring.
It also serves as an insight into the way forward for engineering students. Early in the learning life it’s hard to see why such a focus is put on Mathematics or Professionalism. If a student knows that this is only a small step in the right direction, and that this fundamental teaching supports more specialised learning later, it’s easier to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Get the Oxycutter – We’re Going Deeper
We have covered a lot of ground here, but this only scratches the surface of the Model. In future posts I’ll be going over each of the Competencies, and discussing how this applies to students in the classroom and engineers in their career and life.
The Model served me as a great guide to what is expected of engineers, and is one way of answering the question of ‘What do engineers do?’ Tune in next time as we dig deeper into the first of the Tier 1 Competencies – Lifelong Learning.
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