Abstract:

Does learning stop when people leave college? Nor it does or it should. Lifelong learning is defined as the "ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated" pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons [1]. With the ever-evolving work environment and globalization, working professionals many times find the need to learn due to technological advances, personnel/ role changes (willingly or unwillingly), or other unexpected life events. Besides technical skills, there are many life-long skills that could support people on both personal and professional levels. This paper shares the design of a professional master’s degree program that aims at developing life-long successful skills for working professionals that would like to advance skills that are vital for their career and personal successes.

In 2018, Texas A&M College of Engineering launched the new Master of Engineering Technical Management (METM) program. Applicants are required to have an accredited undergraduate degree either in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) degree or other related degrees and with work experience in engineering-related industries. METM is a 21-month online program, it is designed for managers at all levels to learn technical and managerial knowledge that helps them exceed at their everyday tasks (e.g. project management, financial analysis, etc.) and soft skills that would benefit them in a lifetime. According to Yamat et al. (2007) [2], the aim of lifelong learning is to improve knowledge, skills, and competence with a personal, civic, social, or employment-related perspective. Keeping this in mind, the METM program incorporates topics and tools including emotional intelligence (inclusion of diversity, handling conflicts, self-management, leadership, etc.), decision-making, communication, negotiation, and so forth, all of which are essential skills to master in this ever-changing world.

The first year of the program starts with the concepts of emotional and social intelligence (ESI). A one-week residency personal leadership course is delivered in an immersive workshop fashion that consists of lectures, scenario-based discussions, and reflective writing. Then, a leadership coaching course extends students’ learning: students work with faculty on a customized EI and leadership development plan through one-on-one coaching sessions and reflective journal writing. Students’ self-awareness of their competences and room for growth builds the foundation for the next semesters.

Next, through a series of courses (e.g., Managing Technical Teams, Team Leadership Coaching), students focus on practicing and applying skills such as leadership, communications, conflict management on a team level. Real-life scenarios and case studies are used to facilitate evaluating situations that one might encounter in everyday work and/or life. A second residency week highlights negotiation techniques, executive-level decision-making strategies; and it leads into a Capstone project that is designed to gauge students’ comprehensive learning of all the tools offered in the METM program and concludes with presenting their findings to their industry sponsors in a professional manner. The Capstone project is also a golden opportunity for those who aim at advancing their careers to a higher-level manager or c-level executives. We will discuss the detailed program design in the paper.

Keywords:

Life-Long Successful Skills, Engineering Managers, Professional Graduate Program.