Introducing Innovation in Mechanical Engineering

Education: the Project of the Engineering for Industry

Faculty of the Politecnico di Milano.
Nicol Bachschmid*, Alessio Castelli, Clementina Marinoni, Federico Cheli*,**

Abstract The situation of Italian Engineering Studies and the

needs for innovation are briefly presented. In a first step for
implementing innovation an investigation has been performed
by the Mechanical Engineering Course (MEC) of Politecnico di
Milano, the Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, and
Assolombarda (board of industrial enterprises of Lombardia)
interviewing mechanical engineers mainly graduated at the
Politecnico with some years working experience in any
professional environment, asking to define the learning
outcomes (Los) which have been felt as sufficiently or
insufficiently developed during the academic learning process.
Additional steps will be furnished during the devolvement of
the European Commission funded ECCE project, which aims
at establishing an Engineering Observatory on Competences
Based Curricula for Job Enhancement. Not only actual but
also future expectations will this way also be included in the
database from which future engineering programmes will be
developed at the Politecnico di Milano, particularly in the
Mechanical Engineering Course of the Engineering for
Industry faculty. *

I.

INTRODUCTION

The engineering work place has undergone significant

changes in the last decades. A growing number of engineers
operate in environments that require intensive cross
disciplinary activity, where economic, social and ethic
concepts have also to be taken into consideration. Many
engineers work in service-oriented businesses rather than
the more traditional product-oriented businesses. Language
skills as well as presentation skills are required. And they
depend obviously also on networking and computing tools
that have appeared on the scene less than twenty years ago.
Therefore a re-examination of the preparation that
mechanical engineers receive in order to accomplish these
new requirements seems necessary. At European level also
the accomplishment to the so-called Dublin Descriptors is
required. In Italy the Ministry of Education is promoting the
adoption of an accreditation system which reflects the needs

of the European Higher Education Area, where already

accreditation systems in Engineering studies have been
developed (as the EUR-ACE system). Therefore an
innovation process has been started at the Politecnico di
Milano (PdM) in the Faculty of Engineering for Industry
(FEI), where courses in Mechanical, Energetic and
Aerospace Engineering are offered.
In the frame of this process, the Fondazione Politecnico
di Milano (Foundation of Politecnico of Milan, FPM) has
proposed and is leading a Project, funded by the European
Commission, on establishing an Engineering Observatory
on Competences Based Curricula for Job Enhancement
1
(acronym ECCE ), in which the Dipartimento di Meccanica
(Department of Mechanics, DoM) of the PdM, which is
providing the majority of the teaching courses in
Mechanical Engineering, and is designing, in cooperation
with the Mechanical Engineering Course (MEC) and the
Faculty of Engineering for Industry (FEI), the curricula in
Mechanical Engineering, is one of the academic partners.
Other partners are academics (University of Stuttgart
Germany, University of Birmingham UK and Etvs
Lornd University Hungary) and professional organizations
(like SEFI Socit Europenne pour la Formation des
Ingnieurs, CEFI Comit dtudes sur les Formations
dIngnieurs,
Associaci
Catalana
Enginyers
de
Telecomunicaci in Spain, DEKRA Akademie in Germany).
The aim of the project is first to define with the aid of
professional engineering organisations the expected learning
outcomes (LOs) for engineering curricula (mechanical, civil
and informatics) which are suitable for actual engineering
professional life; DoM is responsible for mechanical
engineering curricula. According to the Bologna process the
studies at the PdM are divided in two levels (bachelor and
master), therefore two curricula are being analysed. The
third level (PhD) is not yet considered in this analysis. The
project will be developed using the level descriptors defined
by the European Qualification Framework. Further the so
defined LOs have to be mapped in the detailed description
of the curricula in order to see where and to which extent
the development of detailed competences or skills is missing

Department of Mechanics, Politecnico di Milano, via LaMasa n. 1, 20158

MILANO (Italy), corresponding author: nicolo.bachschmid@polimi.it

*,** Mechanical Engineering Course, Faculty of Engineering for Industry,

Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, piazza Leonardo da Vinci n. 32, 20133
MILANO (Italy)

Ref. n. 504345-LLP-1-2009-1-IT-ERASMUS-ECUE. The project has

been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication
reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held
responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained
therein.

978-1-4244-6042-7/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE

or is instead present in the actual curricula. The necessary

changes in the curricula should then be implemented and the
results and effects should be monitored by the observatory
which should develop a permanent structure. The main
objectives and expected results of the project are given in
the following.
A preliminary investigation has already been performed
by the Mechanical Engineering Course (MEC) of PdM, the
Fondazione Politecnico di Milano (FPM), and
Assolombarda (board of industrial enterprises of
Lombardia) interviewing mechanical engineers mainly
graduated at the Politecnico with some years working
experience in any professional environment, asking to
define the learning outcomes (Los) which have been felt as
sufficiently or insufficiently developed during the academic
learning process, with regards to the needs of the
professional life, and which outcomes have been developed
but have not been exploited in professional life. The results
are briefly described in the following.
In order to increase the teaching quality also some
initiatives have been launched by the FIE: a committee has
been formed for fostering a brainstorming activity about
teaching and learning quality and for promoting courses on
teaching and learning for the younger teaching staff. Also
this activity is briefly reported in the following.

II.

ACTUAL SITUATION OF ENGINEERING STUDIES IN

ITALY

As shown in Fig. 1 studies are articulated in following

way: 3 years for the 1.st level (bachelor degree) of which 2
are common and the 3.rd year is differentiated for those
students that want access the second level for getting the
master degree, and for the others that access the labour
market. These last students during the third year are
expected to acquire work experience by doing an internship
at a company. Recently the Ministry of Education is
requiring also engineering studies accreditation, quality
assurance, recognition of prior learning, link to national and
international qualification framework, with references to the
European Qualifications Framework (EQF), to the so-called
Dublin Descriptors, to the definition of learning outcomes
(LOs) in the frame of the objectives of the European
Network for Quality Assurance (ENQA).
All this requires a critical review not only of
programmes but also on teaching (and learning) methods.
The detailed Program of Mechanical Engineering at PdM is
described in [2].
Previously (before year 2000) in Italy there was only
one level (of theoretically 5 years) which was considered
equivalent to the master degree. But only 30% of the
freshmen was able to get the degree, and the mean length of
studies was around 7 years.

Master Universitari
(Specializing Master)

Laurea Magistrale
(M)

Laurea (B)

Dottorato di Ricerca
(D/PhD)

To second level

To labour market

Labour market
Figure 1 Actual organization of engineering studies in Italy

5 year degree

3 year degree

About the 70%

of the first cycle
graduates enroll
to the second
cycle

Figure 2 Number of graduates in engineering in Italy before and after Bologna process application (from [1])

Therefore in 1992-93 a lower level was activated

(Diploma universitario, which was then considered in some
way equivalent to a bachelor level). The number of
graduates in engineering in the last 2 decades is shown in
Fig. 2. The mean length of the studies is now assessed
around 4 years. It should further be noted that only a 30%
of the actual graduates at bachelor level access the labour
market. The other graduates access roughly all the 2.nd level
and get the master degree in a mean time of 6 years.

III.

RESULTS OF THE INVESTIGATION

Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, in collaboration with

staff of Mechanical Engineering Course of the FIE and with
the help of Assolombarda (board of industrial enterprises of
Lombardia), has launched an investigation in 2008,
interviewing mechanical engineers mainly graduated at the
Politecnico with some years working experience in any
professional environment, and asking to define the levels of
mastery achieved during the studies in different fields and to
compare them with those required by the labour market.
This investigation aims at defining the LOs which have been
felt by the alumni as sufficiently or insufficiently developed
during the academic learning process, with regards to the
needs of the professional life, and which outcomes have
been developed but have not been exploited in professional
life. The follow up of this investigation will be an interview
of industrial stakeholders and employers asking to define
which are the actual requirements as LOs, as well as the
degree of satisfaction in evaluating LOs as skills and
competences acquired during the university studies of the
employed mechanical engineers. The questionnaire will

demand also to define as much as possible the future

requirements which could be expected as a consequence of
the rapidly changing characteristics of the labour market.
Some data on the investigation: 860 filled
questionnaires (which is 22% of total number of sent
questionnaires) have been analysed, 81% are from
employed engineers (79% with unlimited contract), the rest
is from free lance engineers. Employers are mainly big
sized companies (57.8%) operating in international market
in
traditional
sectors
like
machines
and
mechanical/electrical devices, transportation, oil and gas,
chemistry and petrol-chemistry. Areas of employment are
design, research and development, quality and safety,
production management, technical sales and marketing
division. 80% got the first employment within 3 months
from graduation. Age was in between 40 and 25, population
included 5-year course graduates (57%), 3 year bachelor
graduates (25%) and (3+2) year master graduates (18%).
The mean duration of studies for this population was 4.3
years for bachelor graduates, 5.5 years for master graduates
and 6.2 years for the 5-year course graduates. 50% had no
other working experience (internships or similar) nor
studying experiences abroad, during the university studies.
20% had additional education (1 year master, postgraduate
schools, others). 99% knows English, 30% also French,
20% knows also Spanish or German. A more detailed
analysis is reported in [3].
As a result of the investigation knowledge and skills
have been mapped for defining its significance in
professional life as job requirements, and the degree of
mastery acquired during the university learning process.

Significance for job

Area 2:
Job requires other
skills with respect to
the university LO

Area 1: Competences as
LO in agreement with
industrial needs

Area 3:university
provides other skills
with respect to job
requirements

Level of mastery provided by studies

Figure 3 Graph for mapping professional knowledge and skills as function of job requirements and actual university learning outcome (from [3])

those which are positioned on the left upper side are

required by the labour market, but are not provided by the
university studies. Ranking of level of mastery was between
1 (lowest level) and 4 (highest level). In similar way the
ranking of significance for job was in the range of 1 (lowest
level) to 4 (highest level).

Significance for job

Figure 3 shows the graph: knowledge and skills which

are positioned on the diagonal of the graph (area 1) are
furnished by the university studies as much as they are
required by the jobs in the professional life. Those which are
positioned below and on the right hand side are furnished by
the university but are not required by the labour market and

Level of mastery provided by studies

Figure 4 Mapping of knowledge provided by university studies (from [3])

Fig. 4 shows the mapping of knowledge provided by

university studies, obtained as a result of the investigation
for mechanical engineers.
It is interesting to note that:
advanced mathematics are not required;
linguistic skills are not provided by the university;
managing, safety and environment and some legal skills
are actually insufficiently developed.
Some comments on these results are
advanced mathematics might be directly used by the few
engineers employed in R&D areas, but have obviously
an important cultural, forming value;
it is not universities duty to provide linguistic skills;
perhaps universities should provide less specific
technical and more inter-sectoral cross- disciplinary
skills.
Regarding the specific competences required by the
employers or labour market, these are divided in two
separate graphs for providing a better readability of the
results. It should be remembered that the questionnaire had
been sent to the employed engineers and not to the
employers: therefore the results are related to the levels of
importance of the requirements or needs which have been
felt by the alumni. Asking the same to the employers could
give also different results. Fig. 5.1 shows the mapping of
competences required in managing different activities (such
as quality, safety, innovation, standards as well as the

production process and logistics). Fig. 5.2 shows the

mapping of other competences which are more related to
personal skills (such as design activities, problem analysis,
negotiation abilities, capability of team work and in
international environment and so on).
The main results can be summarized as follows:
use of company structure, of standards in quality and
safety, of innovation projects (Fig. 5.1) is not
sufficiently developed, and requires probably an
assessment period;
more technical programming and managing activities
(Fig. 5.1) are sufficiently developed;
negotiation abilities, presentation skills, and activities
like work programming and organizing (Fig.5.2), which
seem very important in labour market, are insufficiently
developed;
but design of plants and components are well developed.
Presentation skills, team work, problem analysis and
economic evaluations instead are at the boundary
between sufficient and insufficient mastery.
Some comments on above interesting results:
In older engineers, graduated in the decades
between 60ies and 80ies competences and skills were
developed during employment and were based on
personal capacities and ability to adapt. Now the market
has speeded up and requires engineers prepared and
ready to take responsibility in different interdisciplinary
fields.

Significance for job

Use the organizational

structure
Sector regulations

To identify and develop

innovations

To manage the
manuf acturing process

Quality standards

To plan the
manuf acturing process

Safety regulations
To manage the quality
system
2

To design the
production system

To design the quality

system
To plan and manage the
maintenance process

To plan and manage the

logistics process

1
1

Level of mastery provided by studies

Figure 5.1 Mapping of specific competences required by the labour market (from [3])

Presentation skills
To identif y and use the
correct inf ormation

To schedule, organize
and manage work
activities
To extricate in an
international context
4

To work in team

To analyze problems
and f ormulate
hypotheses of solutions

Significance for job

To negotiate

Interdisciplinary
approach

To negotiate resources
and be able to "sell"
projects

To estimate the
environmental and social
impact

To design and draw

plant

To customize products
and standard solutions
according to customer
specif ications

Other

To design and draw

components

To write technical
documents

To estimate the
economic impact

To prepare
specif ications to
integrate sub-systems
1
1

Level of mastery provided by studies

Figure 5.2 Mapping of specific competences required by the labour market (from [3])

Skills which are at the boundary between sufficient and

insufficient level of mastery can be easily further
developed during university studies by modifying a little
the teaching modality introducing in the traditional
courses more occasions for training these skills.
But the skills which are insufficiently developed, are in
reality not at all trained in our universities. Development
of these skills would require specific additional courses
and activities for which actually in our programs no
space is available.
This investigation will be followed by an investigation
performed on the employers in the same geographical area
of mechanical engineers in order to define with more detail
which are the actual expected learning outcomes, and which
are the trends for the future years. This activity will be
covered in the frame of the ECCE project.

IV.

OBJECTIVES OF THE ECCE PROJECT

The following is specified in the description of the

project and of its objectives.
Since the Higher Education (HE) and the productive
world are just facing new and complex challenges after the
2008' financial crisis, the goals of the Bologna Process and

the Lisbon Declaration appear nowadays even more

important, and together with the Communication on "New
skills for new jobs" are key points for the development of
the EHEA -European Higher Education Area- and for
industry as well.
In this scenario, the need of the continuous
collaboration between HE institution and enterprises in
order to enhance the HE curricula, their transparency and
the competences developed is becoming more and more
urgent.
Accordingly, the ECCE main objectives are:
to improve the cooperation among HE institutions and
enterprises during the process of definition of the
competences to be developed by engineering HE
institutions;
to establish a permanent Observatory, able to regularly
provide players and stakeholders with directions and
recommendations on skills offer and demand in the
engineering context and the ways of aligning and
enriching them;
to develop an easily understandable European model (for
Universities and business stakeholders) for the
"translation" of engineering higher education courses
and curricula into learning outcomes and linking them to
the EQF levels (from 6h to 8h).

Thus, the main activities and outputs will be:

the consultation of business stakeholders and engineers
in order to identify the labour market competence needs
and the proposal of new competences to be included in
curricula;
the translation of several engineering and technical HE
curricula into learning outcomes and EQF levels
compliant;
the development of the translation model/language;
the dissemination of project results through the networks
the project partners are involved in;
the exploitation of results with the involvement of new
stakeholders.
It is expected the project will be the reference point for
all those actors involved in the process of creation of the
EHEA in the Engineering.
It is further specified that:
the model and the Observatory developed by the project,
using the EQF as reference tool, shall be "applied" to the
whole set of European engineering higher and VET
qualifications; they will thus foster the transparency of
qualification, the recognition of individual competences,
the comparability among engineering and technical
curricula offered in different countries and the mutual
trust Europe-wide and contribute to the realization of a
single area for lifelong learning;
the model and guidelines developed, by the adoption of a
learning outcomes approach based on the EQF, shall be
the reference point for all those Institutions and actors
involved in the process of creation of the EHEA in the
Engineering field (curricula adjustment, proper"
implementation of ECTS based on learning outcomes
and student workload and recognition of qualifications
and prior learning);
the continuous skill watching and labour market need
analysis carried out by the Observatory, as well as the
planned activities for network building, will provide a
set of mechanisms to improve and standardize the
cooperation between universities, enterprises and
business stakeholders for the co-design of learning
outcomes and programs of engineering curricula.
The permanent Observatory developed will so:
provide mechanism for networking and cooperation
among HE institutions, enterprises and other business
stakeholders for the definition and updating of the
competences to be developed by engineering HE
institutions;
regularly provide players and stakeholders with
directions and recommendations on skills offer and
labour market needs in the engineering context and the
ways of aligning and enriching them.

The curricula translation "mechanism" developed

addresses specific European priorities by the proposal of a
learning outcomes based model linked to the EQF and
NQFs in partner countries, able to improve the transparency
of engineering higher education degrees and curricula and to
improve them with a continuous proposition of new
competences to be included in curricula (in line with labour
market needs).
The mechanism foreseen for the improvement of the
cooperation between engineering universities and
enterprises during the process of definition of learning
outcomes, as well as the continuous "skill watching"
developed by the Observatory will improve the employment
opportunities for engineers and the alignment between
competences developed by the Universities and labour
market needs.
The project will contribute to facilitate the transfer and
recognition of qualifications held by individual citizens, and
to facilitate citizen mobility for work and study at European
level.
In order to prepare faculty members and teaching staff
for the new requirements which will come out from the
investigations, from the Italian Ministry of Education and
from EHEA, some activity has started in the faculty (FEI).
A presentation of FEI can be found in webpage [4].
V.

INTRODUCING INNOVATION IN CONSOLIDATED

PROGRAMMES AT FEI

Introducing innovation in the content of courses and

also in the teaching modality is a process which runs in a lot
of difficulties. Older lecturers are used to teach in the same
way since 20-30 years, and have never been trained in
pedagogic and communication skills. Everybody is
convinced that its field of competence, where he has also
performed research activity, is the most important for the
future engineering activity and will not allow to shorten the
content of his course, for introducing some innovation (in
content or in teaching modality). More easier is the process
in the younger lecturers or better in the researchers which
are preparing to be lecturers.
In order to start this process in the FIE a committee has
been formed for fostering brainstorming about teaching and
learning quality and for proposing some activity aimed at
introducing innovation in teaching modalities. One initiative
is promoting courses on teaching and learning quality for
the younger teaching staff. Since PdM has no teaching and
learning centres, as many European universities have,
experts from pedagogic schools of other universities have
been called to perform this activity. Further a competition
has been launched for re-designing completely almost one
traditional course for introducing team work, active learning,
project oriented learning and critical thinking, and for
developing
presentation
skills.
Some
of
the
technical/scientific content must be wasted for creating
space for new activities. Advantage should be strengthening

and rooting of knowledge, and building up some skills. The

design includes definition of contents which cannot be
dropped, computation of necessary human resources and of
additional spaces and facilities. Blended teamwork requires
additional rooms with the necessary facilities, one for each
group, and technical supervision.
In order to test the effectiveness of some of the
innovative modalities which are proposed, in a small
number of courses for a limited number of students on
voluntary basis a part (25%) of the total time dedicated to
supervised applications and exercises of a traditional course
will be dedicated to this new activity which requires also
some group homework. Also for this initiative additional
space, additional human resources and willingness of the
involved students are required. Therefore extending
innovation to more courses, or better to the whole
programme in mechanical engineering is a difficult,
cumbersome process which requires additional human
resources, more space and facilities

VI.

CONCLUSIONS

The situation of Italian Engineering Studies and the

needs for innovation have been presented. The results of an
investigation which show the directions in which
innovations should develop constitute a first step to which
additional steps will be furnished during the devolvement of
the ECCE project. Future expectations will this way also be
included in the database from which future engineering
programmes will be developed.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The support of the European Community funding the
ECCE project, of Assolombarda and of the faculty of
Engineering for Industry is gratefully acknowledged.
REFERENCES
[1] La formazione degli ingegneri in Italia. Anno 2007 Centro Studi CNI
[2] file Risultati Indagine Ingegneri Meccanici in [5]
[3] file Regolamento didattico in ingegneria meccanica in [5]
[4] webpage www.ingind.polimi.it
[5] webpage
www.mecc.polimi.it/page36.do?link=oln251u.redirect&kcond2o.att1=2

Introducing innovation in Mechanical

Engineering Education
The Project of the Engineering for Industry Faculty of the
Politecnico di Milano
IEEE Transforming Engineering Education Conference
Dublin, 8 April 2010

Agenda

The engineering education in Italy

A pilot investigation on skill needs
The ongoing activities

2008 Fondazione Politecnico di Milano

Background: the situation of Engineering

studies in Italy
The educational organization of the Italian University has
b
been
evolving
l i strongly
t
l ffor lless th
than tten years
Before 2000: integrated courses, 5 years long (theoretically)
1999: DM509 (introduction of B, M, PhD levels)

How to provide the

engineers with skills
required by labour
market?

2004: a new law (DM 270/2004) changed again the

scenarios and the rules of the regulations in higher education

Are we able to anticipate

new skills needs?

2007 DM: new guidelines for the implementation of the

reform in the period 2008-2010

How to implement the

innovation (content of
courses, teaching
methods)?

Next steps: accreditation, recognition of prior learning, QA,

link to national and international QF, stronger cooperation
between Universities and Enterprises

2008 Fondazione Politecnico di Milano

The current situation in Italy

5 year degree

=1 year

Master Universitari
(Specializing Master)

Laurea
(B)
To second
level

Laurea
Magistrale
(M)

Dottorato di
Ricerca
(D/PhD)

3 year degree

To labour
market

About the 70% of the first

cycle graduates enroll to
the second cycle

Labour market

2008 Fondazione Politecnico di Milano

Agenda

The engineering education in Italy

A pilot investigation on skill needs
The ongoing activities

2008 Fondazione Politecnico di Milano

The features of the survey

Done by the Mechanical Engineering Course of the PoliMi,

PoliMi Fondazione Politecnico di
Milano and Assolombarda in 2008
Target: alumni (mechanical engineers) with some years working experience in any
professional environment
Focus: analysis of strengths and weaknesses of the engineering studies
Core: level of mastery achieved (at the end of the engineering studies) / required (by the
labour market) referred to a list of learning outcomes

2008 Fondazione Politecnico di Milano

The mapping of results

Significance for job

Area 2:
Job requires other
skills with respect to
the university LO

Area 1: Competences as
LO in agreement with
industrial needs

Area 3: University
provides other skills
with respect to job
requirements

Level of mastery provided by studies

2008 Fondazione Politecnico di Milano

Significance for job

Results (1/3)

Level of mastery provided by studies

2008 Fondazione Politecnico di Milano

Results (2/3)

Significance for job

Use the organizational

structure
To identif y and develop
innovations

Sector regulations

To manage the
manuf acturing process

Quality standards

To plan the
manuf acturing process

Saf ety regulations

To manage the quality
system
2

To design the
production system

To design the quality

system
t
To plan and manage the
maintenance process

T plan
To
l and
d manage th
the
logistics process

1
1

Level of mastery provided by studies

2008 Fondazione Politecnico di Milano

Results (3/3)
To schedule, organize
and manage work
activities

Presentation skills
To identify and use the
correct inf ormation

To extricate in an
international context

T workk in
To
i tteam

To analyze problems
and f ormulate
hypotheses of solutions

Significance for job

S

To negotiate

Interdisciplinary
approach

To negotiate resources
and be able to "sell"
projects

To estimate the
environmental and social
impact

To design and draw

plant

Other

To design and draw

components

To customize
T
t i products
d t
and standard solutions
according to customer
specifications

To write technical
documents

To estimate the
economic impact

To prepare
specif ications to
integrate sub-systems
1
1

Level of mastery provided by studies

2008 Fondazione Politecnico di Milano

Agenda

The engineering education in Italy

A pilot investigation on skill needs
The ongoing activities

2008 Fondazione Politecnico di Milano

The ECCE project (1/2)

Objectives
1. To improve
p
the cooperation
p
among
g HE institutions and
enterprises during the process of definition of the
competences to be developed by engineering HE institutions
2.To establish a permanent Observatory, able to regularly
provide players and stakeholders with directions and
recommendations on skills offer and demand in the
engineering context and the ways of aligning and enriching
them
3.To develop an easily understandable European model (for
Universities and business stakeholders) for the "translation"
of engineering higher education courses and curricula into
learning outcomes and linking them to the EQF levels (from
6h to 8h)
*The ECCE project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot
be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained
therein.

2008 Fondazione Politecnico di Milano

Erasmus
Cooperation
between
Universities and
Enterprises project
Selection 2009

The ECCE project (2/2)

Main activities

Partnership
p

Surveys to identify skill needs in

the engineering field (targets:
alumni, business representatives)
Translation of the skill needs into
Learning Outcomes EQF compliant
Consultation of business
stakeholders
Suggestion of best practice and
guidelines in the engineering
education

2008 Fondazione Politecnico di Milano

Introducing innovation in FIE programmes

Consultation of external experts (for example pedagogues) to introduce innovation in

teaching methods
Re-design of traditional courses
Strengthening the non-traditional skills (team work, presentation, )
Re-allocation of resources
Continuous benchmarking with international engineering universities

2008 Fondazione Politecnico di Milano