Close the gap: How can design of learning environments shape engineering students professional identity and prepare them for workplace?

Engineering educators are under increasing pressure to provide university students with learning experiences that prepare them for the work after graduation. To understand how educational design can close the gap between engineering education and industry, we need to understand learners’ professional identity practices. In particular, how these practices are shaped by the design of learning materials, learning spaces and learning events. Previous research provides little insight into such relations. We address this gap in two ways. First we propose a new concept of implied identity. Second, we illustrate and discuss implications of the proposed conceptualization of professional identity by drawing on a set of interviews conducted with engineering students in an Australian university with the aim of investigating their perceptions of engineering and unfolding aspects of their professional beliefs in relation to their experiences at two universities and industry.