What engineers need in the 21st Century

• Good communication skills, including multiple languages
• The ability to work in teams
• Cross-cultural sensitivity and knowledge; social awareness
• Capacity to handle complex systems
• Business acumen and sense of entrepreneurship

My Lesson Plan for the Global Era

If I were a university student today, and I knew what I know now, I’d make a commitment to personal development in three key areas.
Those areas are…

• Cultural awareness
• Languages
• Technology

Being culturally adroit requires experience, finesse, and the ability to nuance delicate, local subtleties with key business priorities.
Sensitivity, appreciation and knowledge of diverse cultures
Patience and open-mindedness to possibilities even when they differ from their own ideas
But if there is a fast track, it’s likely through my second area of personal development – language skills. To really earn the necessary level of trust, you have to get beyond the rudimentary levels of language.
In general, people who possess these language skills can earn up to 20% more than those who do not.

Communication and Value

• Beyond our needing foreign language as a communications tool in conducting international business, foreign language studies gives us insight into the way different people in different cultures actually think and act.  It is key to understanding not just what is said with words, but what is truly meant. 
• As globalization increases, we simply must create among our future global businessmen and women a deeper sensitivity to other cultures and to different ways of thinking. 
• We have an opportunity, if not an obligation, to begin this crucial task by teaching them to be active learners, keen-eyed observers, and engaged citizens who can gain practical experience by being part of an international community long before they actually enter the business world.”