Needs of modern civil engineers

In order to understand the challenges that Design and Technology (referred to as D&T hereafter) faces and how overcoming these challenges may allow D&T to be made better preparation for civil engineering, it is first important to discuss the needs of modern civil engineers.

With ever increasing challenges facing current and upcoming civil engineers, it has never been more important that engineering students are equipped with the ability to produce creative designs and be resilient in the face of these challenges (Craddock, 2016).

(Mitchell, 2017) agrees, stating “Creativity and ingenuity” is an essential attribute for professional engineers. He discusses how it is imperative that engineers can go beyond the bounds of the already existing solutions to be able to bring about positive change.

There is a current crisis developing in the field of civil engineering according to (Arciszewski, 2006) who argues that civil engineers have lost their place as innovators and leaders of change. With the challenges of a modern world to overcome, the paper suggests a focus “on engineering creativity” (Arciszewski, 2006), where greater teaching of this engineering creativity, can be used to reform civil engineering and allow it to be the profession that leads the way through the difficult times of present.

This need for knowledge alongside creativity is highlighted when (Boyd, 2016) discusses how “No policy… can be implemented without the creative logic and technical capacity to do so”. There is a need for engineers to be creative and innovate, “To challenge the norm. To learn. Improve. Push boundaries. Influence.” (Boyd, 2016), no matter how small or how major a project, no matter if that project is working in the urban mega cities or in disaster relief in small villages. Engineers have a moral commitment to improving the world around them through their actions, and change can only come about from innovation and creativity.

(Cosgrave and @ICE_engineers, 2018) argues that if we are to overcome the challenges of “mass urbanisation, crumbling infrastructure and catastrophic climate change”, simply adding more hard engineering will not help and instead space must be made for “our engineering community to challenge our approach and assumptions”. Engineers of today and tomorrow must innovate and change, and only by allowing their creativity to flow can this be achieved. This idea of challenging the established practices is further supported by (Craddock, 2016) who favours the idea of new approaches and models of engineering which are appropriate and ready to “respond to the challenges of the 21st century”.

However, creativity is not the only skill modern civil engineers need as (Mitchell, 2017) highlights the need for “the ability to communicate”. He highlights communication is essential because engineering involves working not only for people, but with people. He also highlights that “communication is a two-way process”. (Cosgrave and ICE_engineers, 2018) backs up this point, emphasising the need to work together to achieve success against global challenges; “It is impossible to progress this mission whilst sitting within our own organisations and practices”.

It would therefore seem that modern engineers must be creative and resilient, whilst being knowledgeable and able to communicate their ideas. The biggest theme is the need for creativity and new ideas, suggesting that the current education provides suitable knowledge to upcoming modern engineers but lacks the ability to nourish creativity.

D&T and Engineering Education

In order to produce students with the creativity, resilience and communication skills required to face the challenges presented to engineering currently, students must be given the opportunities to grow and expand their own knowledge. According to (Craddock, 2016), “we need to change the way that engineers are educated” so that they are able to meet the demands of a modern, challenging world.

(Engineering, 2014) discusses the unbalance between the levels of education for their respective inclusion of engineering, highlighting how the primary and secondary levels of education within the UK often only include engineering as one-off or special projects, in contrast to the detailed and dedicated courses provided by universities and colleges. The report also discusses how engineering and the key skills and mindsets required by engineering students can be included in D&T education, but currently only “through the efforts of a committed teacher who introduces it”.

Despite this, participation of students in “well-designed, project-based learning is an excellent preparation” for their future enabling them to develop the wide ranging life skills required to be more successful and fulfilled (Engineering, 2014).

The report also highlights how being taught the qualities to think and act in an engineering style will benefit a student’s future job prospects and help improve their approach to all problems in their lives, weather they choose to enter engineering as a career or not (Engineering, 2014). These qualities, especially creative thinking and problem solving alongside practical and technical knowledge, can be taught effectively with D&T (Green, 2016).

(Green, 2016) also talks about how essential D&T is for “life in an advanced technological society”, raising concerns about students missing out on their “opportunity to have their interest in design, manufacturing and engineering careers awoken”. It is vital this interest is given chance to grow in order to encourage students to not only study engineering, but to be able to present solutions to the complex problems of the current world.

(Hardy, 2016) agrees, suggesting that D&T is “a subject that transforms; pupils learn about designing solutions to improve people’s lives”. This learning enables students to be more aware of the impact of products on the world around them and make better decisions as to how their work and actions can impact on the world in a more positive way (Hardy, 2016).

Challenges facing Design and Technology

The primary challenge for D&T is the loss of interest and uptake, threatening the continued existence of the subject. In recent years the subject of D&T  has been becoming less and less popular with students at all levels; “numbers taking D&T GCSE have dropped from about 450,000 10 years ago to just over 230,000 now” (Judith, 2014).

This decline has lead to a growing number of schools no longer offering D&T (Turner, 2017) despite calls from industry experts that D&T is vital for continued growth of skills (Green, 2016; Hardy, 2016). The value of D&T for developing key skills such as design and creative thinking is being recognised by the South East Asian manufacturing giants now as a way of moving their economy and abilities forward according to (Green, 2016) while in the UK faces increasing challenges.

In order to overcome this loss of interest it is vital that the negative image of D&T being simply wood or metalwork (Green, 2016) is changed, allowing D&T to be seen as a vital subject for allowing students to expand their skills and abilities, especially around design and innovation.

In order to meet the challenges presented to modern engineers, it is vital students are encouraged to develop their creative problem solving and high-level thinking skills (Engineering, 2014). This requirement for the development of creative thinking skills is discussed withi