Spotlight: Engineers Canada Releases "Foresight Event Journal"

Engineers Canada's Futures of Engineering Accreditation Project has published a journal report sharing back findings from a recent event that gathered 90 diverse voices across the engineering ecosystem.  The goal was to investigate and validate the purpose and scope of engineering program accreditation. The objective of Futures of Engineering Accreditation (FEA) is to leverage the insights, perspectives, and expertise of members of the Canadian engineering ecosystem to examine the current accreditation system, understand how it is serving contemporary needs, and consider how it can chart a new path for the future of the profession.

The session brought together the insights, perspectives, and worries of various members of the engineering profession, including engineers, educators, students, engineers-in-training, and people who work with engineers. The group shared perspectives on the current context in which the accreditation system functions and the resulting journal reveals key findings from the session, such as perceptions of the current state of the engineering profession, the engineering community, potential futures of the profession, and challenges that exist or that could exist. 

The journal summary indicates that the accreditation system is a source of significant division and conflict, but that constituents found alignment on the path forward for the profession.  They noted a shared desire for the engineers of the future to be interdisciplinary problem solvers with a strong sense of duty to the public, who are both environmentally and socially aware. The challenge is to build cross-system alignment on the mechanisms that the accreditation system should employ to support these goals.