All-Encompassing Skill Portal for Skills Management and Development

Basel Alsayyed; Yanjun Yan

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: College Industry Partnerships Division (CIP) Technical Session 1
Tagged Division: College Industry Partnerships Division (CIP)
Page Count: 10
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--42599
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/42599
Download Count: 126

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Basel Alsayyed Western Carolina University

visit author page

Dr. Basel Alsayyed
Dr. Basel Alsayyed is the Engineering Technology Program Director and an assistant professor in the School of Engineering +Technology at Western Carolina University. Before joining WCU, Dr. Alsayyed was an Industrial Professor in the department of mechanical engineering, of University of Alberta (UofA), Canada. Prior to joining UofA, Dr. Alsayyed was an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering in UAE University. With over 19 years of experience in academia, and over 12 years of industrial experience, primarily in the American automotive industry, Dr. Alsayyed has a passion for innovation in education, teaching, research, and training. Integration of academia and industry goals and activities are paramount to Dr. Alsayyed. Sensing the industry needs and preparing future engineers to meet those needs and challenges is an important dimension of Dr. Alsayyed’s activities.
Dr. Alsayyed has published more than forty articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. He has seven granted patents. Dr. Alsayyed’s research interests are in the areas of advanced manufacturing, additive manufacturing, design optimization, quality & reliability, engineering education, project management, and knowledge management.
Dr. Alsayyed has a Ph.D. in Industrial engineering, three Masters: (Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, and Project Management). Dr. Alsayyed is a Certified Manufacturing Engineer (CMfgE) since 1997.

visit author page

biography

Yanjun Yan Western Carolina University orcid.org/0000-0002-5152-6614

visit author page

Yanjun Yan is an Associate Professor in Engineering and Technology at Western Carolina University. Her research interests include engineering education, swarm robotics, statistical signal processing, and swarm intelligence.

visit author page

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

One of the challenges for new engineering graduates is to find the dream job, and one of the challenges for industry is to find the right engineer to hire. Graduates will have to apply for many companies hoping to get interviews that will give them an opportunity to sell their skills and get the job. On the other hand, companies will have to interview many candidates hoping that they will get the right candidate to offer him/her the job. This is a tedious, time consuming, and costly process for both the industry and the new graduates. Many efforts are done by universities to offer certain general specialties to meet the industry needs. However, changes in universities curriculums are constrained by the curriculum requirements for the offered degrees. Also, curriculum changes are long processes, and by the time the changes are implemented, the industry needs may have already shifted. -Universities are educating students to have a solid skill set and inspire them to be life-long learners, and the companies can provide the training on the job for their new employees to further develop their skill sets. The authors of this paper propose building a skill portal with all three stakeholders in mind: Students (future engineers), Industry (potential employers), and Academia (educators of the potential engineers to be employed by industry or other sectors). The skill portal will allow the industry (company) to enter their desired skills via a GUI (Graphical User Interface) and save it into a database; allow students to view needed skills per different companies, and the university will design programs and activities (certification programs, in particular, given its flexibility and the potential to integrate it with some courses) to prepare students with the needed skills for certain industry needs. A pilot program is now running to solicit needed skill from the industrial partners of our university, and to encourage the students in a class to pursue a certificate, with both pieces of information to be shared among all the relevant parties. The pilot program will be used to evaluate this program’s impact on shortening the time for the students to get the right job after graduation, and the time for the companies to hire the right employee.

Citation
Format

Alsayyed, B., & Yan, Y. (2023, June), All-Encompassing Skill Portal for Skills Management and Development Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42599

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - One of the challenges for new engineering graduates is to find the dream job, and one of the challenges for industry is to find the right engineer to hire. Graduates will have to apply for many companies hoping to get interviews that will give them an opportunity to sell their skills and get the job. On the other hand, companies will have to interview many candidates hoping that they will get the right candidate to offer him/her the job. This is a tedious, time consuming, and costly process for both the industry and the new graduates. Many efforts are done by universities to offer certain general specialties to meet the industry needs. However, changes in universities curriculums are constrained by the curriculum requirements for the offered degrees. Also, curriculum changes are long processes, and by the time the changes are implemented, the industry needs may have already shifted. -Universities are educating students to have a solid skill set and inspire them to be life-long learners, and the companies can provide the training on the job for their new employees to further develop their skill sets.  
The authors of this paper propose building a skill portal with all three stakeholders in mind: Students (future engineers), Industry (potential employers), and Academia (educators of the potential engineers to be employed by industry or other sectors). The skill portal will allow the industry (company) to enter their desired skills via a GUI (Graphical User Interface) and save it into a database; allow students to view needed skills per different companies, and the university will design programs and activities (certification programs, in particular, given its flexibility and the potential to integrate it with some courses) to prepare students with the needed skills for certain industry needs. A pilot program is now running to solicit needed skill from the industrial partners of our university, and to encourage the students in a class to pursue a certificate, with both pieces of information to be shared among all the relevant parties. The pilot program will be used to evaluate this program’s impact on shortening the time for the students to get the right job after graduation, and the time for the companies to hire the right employee.
AU  - Basel Alsayyed
AU  - Yanjun Yan
CY  - Baltimore , Maryland
DA  - 2023/06/25
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - All-Encompassing Skill Portal for Skills Management and Development
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/42599
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--42599
ER  -