Abstract:

The Master of Engineering Technical Management (METM) program at Texas A&M College of Engineering is a 21-month online program, designed to build life-long learning skills for engineering managers and future technical executives. Lifelong learning is defined as the "ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated" pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons [1]. The METM program consists of 12 courses, covering knowledge from technical-focused topics like finance and project management, data-driven decision making, to soft skill-centered subjects including emotional intelligence, effective communications, leading teams, leadership coaching, etc. As the culmination of the program, students complete a Capstone project over a time span of 10 months, in which they draw knowledge and tools obtained from all the previous courses, and apply them to solve an issue they find that could significantly benefit their own organization, their professional, or personal development, all while working under the guidance and support of a committee of faculty members and industry sponsors.

Qualitative and quantitative data collected from the Capstone course grades and written reflections show that students have gained skills in areas including critical thinking, problem-solving, communications; furthermore, students perceived that the METM program had made a powerful impact on their personal and/or professional growth, e.g. enhanced interpersonal and networking skills, got promoted to advanced positions, etc. Details of findings will be discussed in later chapters of this paper.

References
[1] Department of Education and Science, “Learning for life: white paper on adult education,” 2000. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED471201.pdf

Keywords:

Life-long learning, engineering education, leadership, personal development.