TITLE:
To What Extent the Educational Engineering Program at a Private Lebanese University Prepares Students for the Workplace
AUTHORS:
Najwa Saba ‘Ayon, Yasmine Abu Adla, Raneem Zarafa
KEYWORDS:
Engineering Program, Educational System, Training Program, Internship, Demanded Skills, Theoretical Courses, Practical Courses
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.10 No.7,
July
26,
2019
ABSTRACT:
Having well-prepared engineering graduates for the workplace has been of great importance in the last few decades (Warsame, 2017; Anastasiu, Anastasiu, Dumitran, Crizboi, Holmaghi, & Roman, 2017; Pan, 2014). However, engineering graduates and trainees of a private Lebanese university seem to face difficulties during their training and in the workplace. Furthermore, little research has been done on this university’s engineering educational program. Therefore, the aim of this research was to investigate the extent to which the engineering educational program at a private Lebanese university is preparing its students for the workplace. A mixed-methods design and different data collection instruments were used in this research study. A purposive sample of a hundred graduates and trainees of different engineering majors were surveyed. Additionally, six personal interviews were held with three graduates and three trainees of diverse engineering majors. The quantitative data collected were analyzed using Excel while the qualitative data were thematically analyzed. The collected quantitative and qualitative data were triangulated, and a lot of commonalities between them were detected. In fact, the findings revealed that most respondents reported that neither their lab nor their theoretical courses fully prepared them for the workplace. Nevertheless, most participants stated that their internship experience enhanced both their practical and soft skills. Appropriate recommendations such as encouraging instructors to include real-life case studies to enhance students’ problem-solving skills and adding up-to-date equipment to the labs, were suggested to improve the engineering educational program at this private Lebanese university so that it can help its engineering graduates better survive in the workplace.