European Journal of Engineering EducationVol. 31, No. 3, June 2006, 273–281

Lifelong learning for engineers: a global perspective

GRAHAM GUEST*

Graham Guest Consulting

(Received 22 February 2005; in final form 24 November 2005)

In the not too distant past a person’s skills, knowledge, understanding and competence were judgedlargely on the initial education and training that he or she had undertaken, with continuing professionaldevelopment (CPD) being seen as an optional extra by those who had enthusiasm for it. GraduallyCPD has come to be recognized as an important, even vital, means of keeping up to date in one’schosen career. As we move rapidly and inexorably to a knowledge-based global society CPD is seenas a key component of the wider concept of lifelong learning. Such learning is continuous and notsimply related to employment. It is formal, non-formal and informal and contributes to personal aswell as professional development. In this paper I consider what the 21st century holds in terms oflifelong learning and CPD and touch on some related issues, including coaching and mentoring.

Keywords: Learning; Engineering; CPD; Coaching; Mentoring

1. Technological and organizational change

Not so long ago a person joining a company, particularly a large organization, could expecta job for life. The way into a company for a professional engineer, for example, was througha period of academic study followed by, or combined with, structured training. After this theindividual would generally follow a clearly defined path of progression in his or her chosenfield of employment. Continuing professional development (CPD) was regarded at best as anoptional extra to be undertaken according to the needs or wishes of the individual or to meetsome short-term requirements of the company. At worst CPD was felt not to be important andadditional training was given at random to use up training budgets or to make staff feel thatthey were wanted. Statements such as ‘So-and-so hasn’t been on a training course lately; isn’tit about time we sent him on one?’ were not uncommon.

It has become a cliché to talk about the rapid changes in technology and business in recentyears, but the pace of such changes is indeed breathtaking. Personal computers and mobilephones are commonplace items in the so-called developed world. Video on demand is alreadya reality, so we can watch what we want when we want rather than relying on broadcasters toprovide us with limited choices. Health services require more and more investment as patientsdemand increasingly sophisticated high technology solutions to medical problems. We can

*Corresponding author. 162 Sylvan Road, London SE19 2SA, UK. Email: graham@guest.name

European Journal of Engineering EducationISSN 0304-3797 print/ISSN 1469-5898 online © 2006 SEFI

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journalsDOI: 10.1080/03043790600644396

274 G. Guest

Table 1. Changing business conditions.

From To

Demand for services Over supply of providersAdvertising: professionals as suppliers of

products and servicesMarketing: understanding, uncovering and satisfying

client needsDifferentiation in terms of technical expertise Differentiation in terms of quality and servicesShort-term opportunism Medium/long-term accountabilityAdversarial client relationships Partnership client relationshipsThe professional as technical expert The professional as technical and business consultant

access our bank statements and make money transfers while climbing in the Alps. Such iscivilisation!

Hand in hand with technological advances has gone the introduction of new organizationalmodels: for example the learning organization (Senge 1990) or the centreless corporation(Pasternack and Viscio 1998). Companies or management gurus invent new terms for sackingpeople (downsizing or rightsizing) and even the very concept of an organization is beingquestioned. One of the more recent buzzwords is ‘networks’ (Hutton 2001). In a networkedworld we no longer have long-term loyalty to a single organization but carry out differentprojects with different groups of people.An individual’s first responsibility is to himelf/herselfand then to the networks of which he/she is a member. This apparent selfishness also has amore benign face, because we cannot survive alone in the new business environment, butonly as interdependent members of mutual structures, however fluid. The ‘cathedral’, with itsclearly defined but restrictive hierarchies, has given way to the ‘bazaar’, where we operate ina more chaotic yet freer system (Raymond 1999).

Networks can, of course, be both real and virtual. Our interactions with fellow networkersare not limited by geographical borders. This is particularly important to bear in mind as theproduction of goods and the provision of services are outsourced and those with whom wework are as likely to be on the other side of the world as in the next office. Our learning too maybe carried out at a distance. As e-learning provision grows world wide, students, graduatesand mature professionals are increasingly becoming members of virtual learning communities.An engineering ‘strand’ for the provision of study material, including full-screen, full-motionvideo streamed over the Internet has already been put in place by keep-up-to-date productions(www.keep-up-to-date.tv/engineering).

So the main focus for professionals in the 21st century is on the necessity to keep learningand developing their skills, knowledge, understanding and competence throughout life. Pro-fessionalism relies increasingly on an ability to respond quickly and effectively, and in a globalcontext, to technological and organizational change, as well as to changing market conditions,client requirements, government policies and national and international regulations.

Kennie (2000) saw the principal changes taking place in business conditions as laid out intable 1.

2. Learning and CPD

Different professions have different ideas about what constitutes CPD, but one descriptivedefinition is:

The systematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of knowledge and the development of per-sonal qualities necessary for the execution of professional and technical duties throughout the practitioner’sworking life.

Lifelong learning for engineers: a global perspective 275

And another:

The systematic maintenance and improvement of knowledge, skills and competence, and enhancement oflearning, undertaken by a person throughout his or her working life.

A more client-focused definition is:

The process by which professionals invest in the enhancement of their intellectual capital and thereby add valueto the resolution of clients’ needs.

The key to CPD is learning, which comes about in different ways. It can be formal, non-formal or informal. Formal learning is gained through structured courses run by education ortraining establishments, such as universities or colleges; usually a certificate, diploma or degreeis awarded on successful completion. Non-formal learning is gained through programmes runby organizations whose prime purpose is not the provision of learning, such as the corporatetraining centre in a company; a certificate may or may not be awarded. Informal learning isgained in an unstructured way in the course of one’s work or outside it; this is sometimesreferred to as incidental learning and is, by its very nature, not usually subject to certification.

A person can demonstrate his formal, and usually his non-formal, learning with a certificateof some sort, but it is important, particularly in the networked world where the focus is onthe individual, for him to also be able to demonstrate his informal learning. How can this bedone, bearing in mind that it is possible to learn in such a way without being aware of it?In my role as a coach I sometimes ask a person what he/she has learned in connection withhis/her profession in the past 12 months. Often the answer is ‘Well nothing really; I’ve beentoo busy and haven’t been on any courses’. I might then ask about a project that the personhas been involved with and he/she will proceed to explain how he/she brought a team ofpeople together, coached them in certain skills, worked out a strategy, dealt with budgets, putin place software to model the project, researched into legal aspects of the project in relationto the client company and so on. As the person tells this story he/she begins to realise, tohis/her surprise, just how much he/she has learned without being aware of it.

We each have our own preferred ways of learning, or learning styles, but when we learnanything we typically pass through four distinct phases (Holmes 2002).

• Unconscious incompetence. We don’t know that we don’t know. We have yet to learn abouta subject, such as driving a car or riding a bicycle.

• Conscious incompetence. As we begin to learn something we are acutely aware of ourfailings and inability to master the skill we are trying to learn.

• Conscious competence. We have begun to master the skill, but still have to maintain ourconcentration and are still prone to errors. It is believed that we learn most during this phase.

• Unconscious competence. This is where we apply the skill automatically, without the needreally to think about it. The unconscious mind takes control, leaving the conscious mind tothink about other things.

3. Facets of CPD

As well as being able to identify and measure CPD, both for our own purposes as professionalsand in order to demonstrate it to others, we need to plan and record it. These issues are beingaddressed at the local, regional, national and international levels, not only by individuals,companies and educational establishments, but also by trade unions, training organizationsand professional bodies.

CPD is a field in which there has been much ‘reinvention of the wheel’. Instead of investiga-ting systems that have already been designed, developed and put in place, many organizations

276 G. Guest

have tended to start from the beginning. There is evidence though to suggest that this situationis changing and we are beginning to see more cooperation and more generic approaches toCPD in areas such as those set out below.

3.1 Provision

It is important for organizations to consider to what extent they are able to provide CPDthemselves and to what extent they should work with other bodies on CPD provision. Manyprofessional bodies in the engineering field, for example, are now collaborating to makeavailable to their members access to various sources of CPD through a number of channels,not least the Internet.

3.2 Accreditation and evaluation

The structures needed to accredit and evaluate informal CPD in particular are complex andcooperation between professional bodies can save much time and money, helping to avoidduplication of effort. Computerized systems are being developed to ease the workload involvedin these processes, ways of accrediting and evaluating CPD are being investigated, and jointmechanisms are being introduced. The Professional Associations Research Network (PARN)(www.parn.org.uk), for example, is active in these areas.

3.3 Definition and planning

General guidelines on CPD are being developed by professional bodies and companies toenable members and employees to plan their careers as effectively as possible. Individuals canprofitably ask themselves five questions as part of a learning plan.

1. Where have I been in relation to CPD?2. Where am I now?3. Where do I want and need to be?4. How will I get there?5. How will I know when I have arrived?

3.4 Recording and demonstrating

Various mechanisms exist to enable people to record and demonstrate their CPD in hard copyform, on disk or on the Internet. Many engineering organizations provide their members oremployees with web-based personal development records (PDRs). Diary-based planning andrecording systems are available from companies such as Premier IT (www.premierit.com),who have also set up an Online CPD Forum (www.onlinecpd.co.uk).

A Europortfolio is being developed by the European Institute for E-Learning (www.eife-l.org). It could well become a vital tool for the European undergraduate of the future. Jones(2004) said that an application for employment from a student in 2010 could look like this:

1. I do not provide a paper application to the employer or complete a web form. Instead I sendtwo electronic keys. The first gives access to part of my e-portfolio containing an electronicEuropass Diploma Supplement (e-DS) and CV, a standard letter of application and a majorproject I completed. The second key is a reference.

2. An electronic agent checks my e-DS against the job specification and confirms that I amqualified for a place.

Lifelong learning for engineers: a global perspective 277

3. The recruiter asks the agent to fetch the further information I provided.4. The agent presents my information in a way that is designed to help the recruiter check it

against the job specification.5. The admissions officer checks the e-DS. He can also easily check each of the skills I have

claimed against evidence in my project. He asks the electronic agent to fetch the reference.6. The admissions officer checks the reference against my claim and the evidence in the same

way.7. I am offered a place.

3.5 Promotion

Bodies such as the Institute of Continuing Professional Development (www.cpdinstitute.org)are committed to working with other organizations, including companies, colleges and uni-versities, employers’ associations and trade unions, to promote CPD generally and makeprofessionals in the engineering and other fields more aware of how it benefits them personallyand the wider public.

4. Coaching and mentoring

The Internet is proving to be invaluable in many areas of lifelong learning and CPD. It isan almost boundless source of information and knowledge and a key tool for the facilitationof learning from school, through college or university, to the world of work. Individualshave potentially unlimited access, but from a CPD perspective this has its dangers. For truelearning to take place information needs to be transmuted into knowledge, and knowledgemust be combined with skills and competence. People are increasingly less willing to bepassive recipients of training or instruction, but if they are to be effective professionals theystill need guidance. New forms of guidance are being put in place as old style hierarchicalstructures dissolve. Training, management and other ‘mechanistic’ approaches are giving wayto coaching and mentoring, which involve dialogue rather than instruction and where the focusis on the individual professional.

Many professional institutions in the UK operate mentoring systems for their members.Younger members, for example at undergraduate level, can be appointed a mentor who offersthem advice and guidance on achieving higher professional status within the institution. Thementor can play a valuable role in helping the mentee keep a PDR to record what has beenachieved and learned and identify appropriate career routes, including relevant future learning.

A mentor:

• is a wise and trusted counsellor;• is suitably experienced;• has usually travelled the mentee’s path;• acts as a confidential adviser and guide;• stimulates professional development.

Murphy (1995) questioned the whole concept of management. He said that even now mostmanagers do not yet understand how manipulative most human resource approaches are andhow such approaches invisibly undermine their very purpose: excellent performance. He calledfor a change from managing people to coaching them.

The coaching relationship:

• involves mutual commitment, trust and respect;

278 G. Guest

Table 2. From traditional organization to learning.

From To

Functional departments Process teamsHierarchical structures Flat structuresDiscrete tasks Multi-dimensional workPeople following instructions People doing what is rightPeople waiting to be given work People using initiativeManagement LeadershipSupervisors CoachesTraining courses Continuous learningVertical advancement Horizontal broadeningPolicy-driven systems Customer-driven systems

• encourages freedom of expression;• is pragmatic in employing useful models;• is process oriented and avoids ‘techniques’;• is reciprocal, with both coach and client learning.

Coaching and mentoring are key features of a 21st century approach to learning and devel-opment and go hand-in-hand with the types of transformation involved in turning a traditionalorganization into a learning organization. These involve the movements laid out in table 2.

5. Lifelong learning

Another old certainty that is being questioned is the division between work and leisure. Somepeople feel overwhelmed by their work and in many organizations stress levels are high. Thereis much talk now about the so-called work–life balance. It is worth noting that some peoplesolve the work–life balance problem not by defining the boundaries between work and leisuremore clearly, but by blurring them. So personal development and professional developmentbecome interconnected.

‘In a technologically advanced society where production of sufficient goods and servicescan be handled with ease, employment exists primarily for self-development, and is onlysecondarily concerned with the production of goods and services’ (Harman and Hormann1990). This connects with the notion that each of us, as an individual, must be responsible forour own lifelong learning, of which CPD is a key part. As the ‘job for life’ disappears, so maythe concept of ‘role’. Perhaps it will not be long before we cease to define ourselves in termsof a single job, role or even profession, such as engineering. As Briskin (1998) pointed out,‘Role is a mental construct that is fluid and constantly changing because the world around usis also dynamic and constantly changing’.

More confirmation that we are moving towards a global knowledge society in which thenew holistic model of lifelong learning will be the norm is provided by work being done inter-nationally on the development of credit-based qualifications frameworks. Credit accumulationand transfer schemes (CATS) were originally developed to allow elements of undergraduatestudy to be given ‘currency’, so that students moving between educational establishmentswould have their previous study recognized and accepted. A European Credit Transfer System(ECTS) was introduced in 1989. This, as the name indicates, was set up initially only for credittransfer. It has since been developing into an accumulation system for implementation at theinstitutional, regional, national and European levels and is one of the key objectives of theBologna Declaration of 1999.

Lifelong learning for engineers: a global perspective 279

The Bologna Declaration, signed by the Ministers of Education of 29 European countries inJune 1999, is especially relevant to European undergraduates. It involves six actions relating to:

1. a system of academic grades which are easy to read and compare, including the introductionof the diploma supplement, designed to improve international transparency and facilitateacademic and professional recognition of qualifications;

2. a system essentially based on two cycles: a first cycle geared to the employment marketand lasting at least three years and a second cycle conditional upon completion of the firstcycle;

3. a system of accumulation and transfer of credits, of the ECTS type used successfully withinthe Socrates-Erasmus programme;

4. mobility of students, teachers and researchers;5. cooperation with regard to quality assurance;6. the European dimension of higher education.

The aim of the Bologna process is to facilitate convergence of the various higher educationsystems in Europe towards a more transparent system using a common framework based onthree cycles: Bachelor, Master and Doctorate.

At the March 2000 Lisbon Council the heads of state and government of the EuropeanUnion, conscious of the changes caused by globalization and the challenges inherent in aknowledge-based economy, set a new objective for the Union for the decade ahead, that ofbecoming the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capableof sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion. As faras the European Union is concerned, the Bologna process fits into the broader framework ofthe Lisbon objectives.

One of the latest developments in the area of credit transfer is the European Credit Trans-fer System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET). Among the aims of ECVET isthe promotion of geographical and professional mobility throughout life, taking account of aperson’s formal, non-formal and informal learning and having regard to the European Qualifi-cations Framework (EQF). The promotion of lifelong learning and qualifications frameworksis taking place on a global scale, with individual countries and groupings such as the EuropeanUnion and the Arab League working together on the development of world wide systems ofmutual recognition, acceptability and transparency.

Much of the work towards making lifelong learning a reality in Europe is summarized in theCopenhagen Declaration of 2002. Aims identified in the Declaration include the following.

• A single framework for transparency of competencies and qualifications. The intention isto bring together into a single user-friendly and more visible format the various existingtransparency instruments, for example the European CV, the certificate supplements anddiploma supplements, Europass training and the national reference points, possibly usingthe Europass brand.

• A system of credit transfer for VET. Inspired by the successful European Credit TransferSystem in higher education, the intention is to develop a similar system for the vocationalsector.

• Common criteria and principles for quality inVET. Taking forward the work of the EuropeanForum on Quality, a core of common criteria and principles for quality assurance will bedeveloped, which could serve as a basis for European level initiatives, such as qualityguidelines and checklists for VET.

• Common principles for the validation of non-formal and informal learning. The aim is todevelop a set of common principles to ensure greater compatibility between approaches indifferent countries and at different levels.

280 G. Guest

• Lifelong guidance. The aim is to strengthen the European dimension of informationguidance and counselling services, enabling citizens to have improved access to lifelonglearning.

Within Europe these and related policies on lifelong learning continue to develop rapidly.The Bologna process and the principles underpinning the new EQF are now supported by 45countries. At a conference in Budapest in February 2006, convened to consider recommenda-tions relating to the EQF, a large measure of agreement was achieved on the way forward for astreamlined Europe-wide approach to lifelong learning based on the assessment of knowledge,skills and competence.

It is clear that individuals and organizations that ignore lifelong learning or do not treat itseriously will get left behind as patterns of work and leisure continue to change beyond ourexpectations. To take just three examples, how many people a few years ago predicted theextent to which we can now work from home or other remote locations using sophisticatedinformation and communications technologies, foresaw development of the ‘portfolio career’,where people use their talents and expertise in a variety of contexts, or envisaged the growingimportance of networks, both real and virtual, in the worlds of work and learning?

From an engineering perspective, the interconnectedness of personal development and pro-fessional development in the context of lifelong learning has been addressed by the SEFIWorking Group on Lifelong Learning and Continuing Education in Engineering (Padfield etal. 1998). It is worth quoting from their report to see how one pan-European engineering bodydescribes essential ‘lifelong learning skills’.

A fully effective ‘adult learner’ ‘it said’ is able, fluently and without external direction, to:

• audit and assess what they already know and can do;• work out, at a level of detail that will differ from individual to individual, a career and a

learning development plan;• integrate into their learning acknowledgement of their need for continuing personal

development in the private as well as the professional realms;• understand the qualities of different kinds of knowing, of understanding, and of skills and

competences; how the different kinds of knowledge inter-relate and reinforce each other;• reflect upon their knowledge, establishing links between different kinds of knowledge, and

formulating relevant theoretical constructs to explain it;• conduct research into elements of professional knowledge, practice and competence that lie

within the context of their work, in pursuit of solutions to ‘problems of the day’, personalprofessional development, and (more generally) the development of their profession.

6. The future

In the 21st century CPD is high on the list of priorities among individuals and organizationsworld wide and in many of the presentations I have made in recent years to engineers and otherprofessionals, both in Europe and beyond, participants have been keen to express their viewson what the future might hold for learning and development. Here are some of the radicalideas that have been floated.

• All learning will be lifelong learning and include continuing professional development. Itwill be our own individual responsibility, as self-directed learners, but undertaken with help,support and guidance from our coaches, mentors, colleagues and fellow networkers.

• In the new learning society we will be increasingly interdependent, pursuing our learningand development in all manner of ways, acquiring new skills and knowledge as we needand want them.

Lifelong learning for engineers: a global perspective 281

• We will become more proficient at learning how to learn, accessing new information andseeking out new sources of knowledge using information and communications technologies.

• Traditional education and training establishments will eventually be subsumed into a globalvirtual learning network with unrestricted access.

• The distinction between professional and personal development will ultimately becomeirrelevant.

• The concept of ‘qualifications’will become obsolete. Instead, we will build our own personalportfolios of learning and development, open and accessible on the Internet.

• The ‘job’, as we now understand it, will disappear and work will be a source of personalfulfilment rather than of alienation.

7. Conclusion

Just to show that there is nothing new under the sun, I conclude with the following declarationof Jan Comenius from his 1657 work on education, Pampaedia (Dobbie 1986):

Just as the whole world is a school for the whole of the human race, from the beginning of time until the very end,so the whole of a person’s life is a school for every one of us, from the cradle to the grave. It is no longer enoughto say, with Seneca: ‘no age is too late to begin learning’. We must say: ‘every age is destined for learning, noris a person given other goals in learning than in life itself’.

References

Briskin, A., The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace, 1998 (Berrett-Koehler Publishers: San Francisco, CA, USA).Dobbie, A.M.O., Comenius’s Pampaedia, 1986 (Regency Press: London, UK, USA)Harman, W. and Hormann, J., Creative Work: The Constructive Role of Business in a Transforming Society, 1990

(Knowledge Systems: Indianapolis, IN, USA).Holmes, A., Lifelong Learning, 2002 (Capstone Publishing: Oxford, UK). Available from: info@cpdinstitute.orgHutton, W., The Network Economy, ICPD Newsletter, January 2001, 16, 1–2.Jones, P.R., Implementing e-Portfolios for Lifelong Learning in Europe, 2004. Available online at: www.global-

learning.de/g-learn/cgi-bin/gl_userpage.cgi?StructuredContent=m130326 (7 April 2006).Kennie, T., The Growing Importance of Continuing Professional Development, 2000. Available online at:

www.cpdinstitute.org (7 April 2006).Murphy, K., Generative coaching: a surprising learning odyssey. In Learning Organizations: Developing Cultures

for Tomorrow’s Workplace, edited by S. Chawla and J. Renesch, 1995 (Productivity Press: Portland, OR, USA).Padfield, C. et al., Lifelong Learning in Engineering Education: A Call to Action. SEFI Document no. 20, 1998

(European Society for Engineering Education: Brussels, Belgium).Pasternack, B.A. and Viscio, A.J., The Centerless Corporation, 1998 (Simon & Schuster: New York, USA).Raymond, E.S., The Cathedral & The Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary,

1999 (O’Reilly: Sebastopol, CA, USA).Senge, P.M., The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, 1990 (Century Business:

London, UK).

About the author

Graham Guest has a management background in the professional institution world and is nowa consultant focusing on continuing professional development and lifelong learning. He alsoprovides business and career counselling and coaching, and runs workshops and seminars onpersonal and professional development. His is currently Learning & Development Consultantto the Institute of Continuing Professional Development (ICPD) and UK representative of theBundesverband höherer Berufe der Technik, Wirtschaft und Gestaltung (BVT).