he says.
Expectations
What industry leaders to expect, however, are students who have the ability to operate in the environment in which they are placed. These areas where there appears to be a deficiency include interpersonal skills, knowledge of computers, nontechnical/business skills, quality management skills, and an appreciation for the plant floor. Depending upon what industry the new graduate is placed, the need for certain skills will vary.
Wallace, who works for a service-oriented company (Walt Disney World), thinks today s students are well-trained in most areas, with the exception of computer shills. She says she still sees a lot of students who came out of school without very good computer skills. “Nowadays, that should be a prerequisite.”
In the manufacturing sector, Jack Broadway, director of corporate IE for Reynolds Metals, believes today s students are probably better educated than in the past, but they have some misconception about the types of jobs they will perform. “A lot of (students) coming out today want to sit behind a computer and they think that is their job. Well, a computer is just another tool. It s just something you use to do something else,” he says. He suggests that on-the job training while in school may be one of the best ways to prepare students.
On healthcare side, Sahney (Henry Ford Health Systems) thinks that in general terms, schools are providing properly trained students, but they often are not given the opportunity to become well-rounded in other areas. Because what he says is the profession’s “roots of accreditation,” the curriculum is too tightly controlled. He does not think individual institutions have enough variety. In other words, he says, the electives are very limited by the time all of the required courses are finished. This problem is often exhibit as a lack of writing and presentation skills in many of the new graduates.
Most IEs eventually must sell their ideas and plans to management, which often requires above-average communication skills. For many IE graduates, this is a tough challenge. Russell Cartmill, IE director at The Coca-Cola Co., says he is frequently confronted with hiring recent graduates who lack basic communication skills. He says Coca-Cola ends up having to teach people things once they get in the areas of public speaking and report writing, “some of the basic things that you really need to have in industry in order to make a good presentation.”
One way schools are combating this problem, which is also a problem with students in other engineering disciplines, is semester-long undergraduate and graduate-level courses directed at familiarizing engineering students from all disciplines with the non-technical aspects of engineering. These courses focus on topics such as financial management, project management, business planning and business development.
Other schools have even gone as far as offering graduate degrees that are a combination of an IE degree and business degree in an attempt to target students seeking manufacturing engineering job But Vieth is not the business route is the best path for the industrial engineering curriculum to follow. “I think if we lose track of the technical knowledge, we re just going to look like a high-priced business graduate,” he says.
Another option IE departments at universities and colleges might consider is specializing in a particular function of IE (i.e. operations research, material handling, ergonomics, human factors, etc.), and market their program accordingly. For example, says Cherubin, if a college student wants to be an IE and has a particular interest in material handling, that student should be able to choose