Teamwork as a fundamental skill for engineering graduates

Many engineering graduates join the workforce in various industries and encounter complex systems and processes in a highly competitive environment. Many engineering firms aim to boost their efficiency so that they can meet growing customer needs with shorter deadlines at minimal cost. Furthermore, many firms are lean and target to do more with limited resources. These challenges require more collaboration and team-playing skills from engineers working in industry. In summary, engineering graduates need to be good team players, good communicators and social individuals. On the other hand, the conventional engineering curriculum is highly specialized and demanding which leaves very little space and time for learning social skills and understanding group dynamics. Furthermore, the pedagogical approach is mainly focused on individual effort rather than team work. Many times, this results in academically high achieving graduates that are lacking necessary non-technical skills. This paper will present our initiatives to cultivate team work and communication skills for our engineering students. We will elaborate methods used for team formation, resolving conflict and assessing team work and individual contribution.