Päivi Honka, MA, Senior Lecturer, New Industry, Lapland University of Applied Sciences
Sanna Jylhä, M.Sc., Senior Lecturer, New Industry, Lapland University of Applied Sciences
This article represents SDG goals 13 and 4.
Climate change is a real threat all over the world and it has been taken seriously. The European Green Deal project aims to make Europe climate neutral by 2050. (European Commission 2024.) Finland aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035 and to halt the decline in biodiversity by 2030 (Ministry of Finance Finland 2024). Both boost the economy through green technology and speed up the transition from fossil energy.
Engineers of the future will increasingly work with and in green transition. As the world is changing, they need more and more communication and collaboration skills, as well as language skills. The aim of the ECO-GT project is to react and respond to the above mentioned challenges by improving not only engineers´ practical work life skills but adapting local educators´ curricula to meet the needs.
The project
ECO-GT, i.e. Engineers Communicating and Collaborating Internationally for the Green Transition ECO-GT is a project funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnerships Programme. The project brings together a group of educators from Lapland University of Applied Sciences, Gdansk University of Technology in Poland, Fachhochschule Technikum Wien in Austria, Technological University Dublin in Ireland, Istanbul Universitesi in Turkey, Universidade de Tras-Osmontes e Alto Douro in Portugal, and Universitatea Transilvania din Brasov in Romania.
The project aims to fill a gap in the engineering curriculum by focusing on international communication of green-transition engineers in Europe. Based on an analysis of the professional practices of green-transition engineers, the project aims to introduce an innovative competency framework, implementable learning outcomes as well as assessment criteria tailored to their needs.
The project material is designed to support the development and diffusion of green transition innovation in research, business, and policymaking communities. It takes an innovative approach to curriculum design, providing engineering faculties and students with adaptable, evidence-based communication skills for diverse contexts.
Furthermore, the project emphasizes reflective organizational learning, where partners explore the challenges and opportunities in curriculum development. The goal is to enrich future engineering curricula and equip future green-transition engineers with practical international communication skills. Over the long term, this seeks to enhance the perceived and actual relevance of international communication skills education.
Mechanical Engineering and Electrical and Automation Engineering of the New Industry expertise group in Lapland UAS participate in the project. As the purpose of the project is to improve communication and collaboration skills among engineering students, it is natural that English and Finnish teachers work in this project. Of course, developing curriculum is a common purpose, and other teachers are also involved at some points of the project.
Work life collaboration in research
It is important to involve work life in this project. Two focus groups were held last spring, in which the objective was to gain insights from professional engineers engaged in projects covering various stakeholder interactions. Participants were from Outokumpu, Rejlers, Circular Economy Centre and Lapland UAS RDI.
Both focus groups were split into three sections. In the first section the participants were asked what they understand by Green Transition and what related technologies they have been involved in. Secondly, the aim was to clarify the process of innovation from start to finish and define the tasks involved. Thirdly, the participants considered how different people act in different interactive situations during the process lifecycle and how they determine successful communication in these contexts. Finally, there was a discussion on the challenges of communication and skills needed to prepare engineers to communicate optimally with different stakeholders.
The result of the focus groups was that engineers need different communication skills in Green Transition. The most mentioned themes are mentioned in figure 1.
Figure 1. Most mentioned communication skills in work life focus groups
Competency Framework research
In June 2024 there was a consortium meeting in Gdansk, Poland, where the results of focus groups were presented and given feedback. It was interesting to notice cultural differences in communication challenges between countries. On the other hand, there were similarities between partners, too. For example, the students who have a native language other than English, have the same language barriers and difficulties of understanding professional vocabulary.
In addition, we worked in teams in order to have common opinions about what an engineering student should know after practicing different communication skills, in other words: what are so called “Can do –statements”. Since then, that groundwork has been progressed into competency framework. Each country will choose 8-12 suitable competencies for their own needs with the purpose of piloting mini modules.
Piloting
As stated earlier, one task in this project is to create mini modules that can be used in teaching communication skills to students. In September 2024 we had an English Day for Mechanical Engineering students. The task of the day was to adapt communication for different audiences: 3rd graders (i.e. children at the age of 9-10 years), public audience and mechanical engineering students.
The subjects were Circular Economy, Welding and 3D printing. Students searched for information on their subject and prepared a presentation, in which they regarded their audience: vocabulary, communication style and other things that should be considered. As the students worked in small groups, they also learned collaboration (Figure 2). According to student feedback this piloting suited well for practicing communication for different target groups. It’s important to get the students´ opinion of teaching and learning communication and language skills.
Figure 2. Mechanical Engineering students working on their presentation
Future
The project will be continued with an internal educator focus group in October. The purpose of the focus group is to clarify in what ways students develop communication and collaboration skills within technology and engineering-specific classes. Based on the educator focus group results piloting will be started in full. Mini modules will be implemented and tested in courses where they can be incorporated logically. The courses will be taught either in Finnish or in English. The piloting is scheduled for the spring term 2025.
In 2026 a summer school is planned to be arranged in Portugal. A group of students from all participating universities will be chosen to the summer School. It will also be a testing event for the developed minimodules.
All this piloting work will eventually lead to curriculum development in the partner universities. The outcomes of the project will also be collected in a handbook. A teaching toolbox with minimodules and handbook will be implemented in teaching at the new industry expertise group on Kemi campus.
Conclusion
Read more about ECO-GT: ECO-GT Engineers Communicating and Collaborating Internationally for the Green Transition (ecogt.eu)
References
European Commission 2024. Green transition. Referenced 4.10.2024. Green transition – European Commission (europa.eu)
Ministry of Finance Finland 2024. Green transition – Recovery and Resilience Plan. Referenced 4.10.2024 Green transition – Recovery and Resilience Plan – Valtiovarainministeriö (vm.fi)
Key words: communication, language teaching, climate changes, engineers, mechanical engineering, Electrical engineering