Engineers are mathematicians with technical expertise. They act factual, follow findings based on calculations and rely on proven concepts. This is the stereotype. But many engineers are already acting exactly as requested by analyses of future trends in working environments: data-based, creative, planning and solution-oriented. Soft skills will no longer be a nice option – but a necessity.
“No man is an island” – poet John Donne wrote in the 17th century and reggae musician Dennis Brown repeated when he made his first album. This is also true for work. Increasing networking and technologically advanced communication even lead to an enhancement of this phenomenon. Requirements for interpersonal communication rise, almost everyone has to be able to deal with data, to manage own capacities and to create new solutions by using transferred know-how.
Consequences for both, companies and staff, are discussed in the context of “Future of Work” or as results of the “Industrial Internet”. What is quite clear: the technological change will influence all working areas and industries. Working in production, in large-scale industrial plants and in the energy sector will not remain unaffected. The world of work will become above all more challenging in one respect: complexity. This should be good for engineers. Because to be honest: complexity is their home base. ;)
Planning skills and communicative competences are becoming more important
There are only limited scenarios available describing a detailed outlook for working in an industrial environment. Yet the Future of work survey by the World Economic Forum shows that soft skills like creativity, logical reasoning, problem sensitivity, intercultural skills, interdisciplinary as well as active learning, time management and teaching others will emerge far more than technical skills or physical abilities.
„For example, the increasing ubiquity of mobile internet combined with the coming-of-age of the Internet of Things promises to transform the daily routine of many frontline roles in (...) Installation and Maintenance, and Manufacturing and Production job families across all industries, requiring a much higher level of technology literacy than in the past. As an ancillary characteristic to increased automation in these fields, employees are expected to have more responsibilities related to equipment control and maintenance and problem-solving skills, as well as a broader general understanding of the work processes of their company or organization.“ (The Future of Jobs, WEF p. 23)
Engineers have an existing strong skill set
Self-management, personal responsibility, intercultural and social competences, the ability to transfer knowledge and to execute professional presentations are additional soft skills which already are of great importance today. And many engineers possess those since without the ability to deal with complexity and to communicate well neither the development of new products nor smooth running of operations would be possible.
The main difference: while only specific soft skills have been necessary for specific working areas up to now, all employees must have a wide range of soft skills in the future to deal with increasingly complex jobs. In addition a key to success for engineers will be the ability to proactively examine their skills since a continuous development of abilities according to changing demands will be required.
Engineers should be prepared with regard to these developments. During the following weeks we will provide some interesting approaches about how this might look like.
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