Acting diverse: target group orientation as key competence in engineering education

Abstract

International companies are recognised by equity between men and women as well as between other different groups (Diversity) as an economic factor and incorporate it into their company visions. Mixed teams are set up to design target group-oriented products, for example in automotive engineering. Therefore they need employees who represent the different target groups, leading to a better integration of women and minority groups into their work force. The Managing Diversity approach is entering the German or European labour market via internationally working companies from the US, where Managing Diversity has been on the agenda for many years. At the same time, industry and universities in Germany face a huge problem: the lack of personnel in technical professions, especially the absence of women and of technically gifted, but not technically interested men. Additionally, during recent years, industry claims that the non-technical basic knowledge of graduates is very poor—and these are the competences that are important for successful cooperation processes. The current article will first describe the theoretical basis of teaching and learning diversity as a key competence and then show an example of implementing diversity and key competences in the traditional engineering curriculum.

Keywords:

• Acting diverse
• Target group orientation
• New key competencies in engineering