Needs and Examination of Strategies for Lifelong Learning in Engineering Education

The shortage of highly qualified engineers in our knowledge-based economy requires the collaborative and coordinated action of academic institutions, professional societies, industry players, and education policy makers. In particular, lifelong learning of engineers is considered as one of the most important presumptions for future growth and social welfare. The aim of this paper is to identify the needs for lifelong learning of Greek engineers, based on recent survey data publicly available by the Technical Chamber of Greece. Furthermore, we assess the approach followed by the Department of Electronics of the Technical Educational Institute of Crete (TEloC) in response to the demand for problem-based education in telecommunications and network engineering. This approach, as well as the experience gained from other actions carried out by TEloC (i.e., the establishment of a unit for lifelong learning, the organization of summer schools in hot areas of engineering, workshops offered to the academic instructors), present to be efficient strategies for lifelong learning education.