Engineering learning connections for sustainable development futures: Towards transformative professional education for Venezuelan and Australian in-service engineers

Engineers play a crucial role in the sustainable development of nations as well as internationally. Accordingly it is equally crucial that engineers are able to participate in effective professional education that facilitates... [ view full abstract ]

Engineers play a crucial role in the sustainable development of nations as well as internationally. Accordingly it is equally crucial that engineers are able to participate in effective professional education that facilitates their own continuing learning as well as their capacity to contribute to the creation of sustainable futures for individuals, groups and communities. Yet engineers’ professional education reflects wider political and sociocultural debates about the engineering profession, its pre-service and in-service learning, and its long-term future.
This paper presents a comparative, exploratory case study investigating the opportunities for and the outcomes of current professional education for in-service engineers in Venezuela and Australia. The study highlights the authors’ experiences in designing and implementing professional education courses provided by their respective universities. The paper draws on comparative empirical data, including information about engineering education, documentation about national standards for sustainable practice by engineers, and program and course data in the engineering sections of the two institutions. The analysis is framed conceptually by a distillation of contemporary theories of development, futures and sustainability.
The findings of the analysis cluster around the convergences and synergies, as well as around the significant differences, between professional education for in-service engineers in the two universities and their respective countries. The findings include important opportunities for engineering dynamic and long-term learning communities for engineers and hence for the communities whom they serve. Yet the findings include as well continuing barriers to transformative professional education that also reflect wider constraints on the realisation of global sustainable development goals.