ISLe Learning Hub on Transforming Engineering Education: Key Competencies and Emerging Topics

The Transforming Engineering Education Learning Hub is part of the Infrastructure Sustainability Learning (ISLe) Initiative, designed to accelerate knowledge sharing and collaboration across the global engineering community. The series creates a space for academics, practitioners, and industry leaders to explore how engineering education can adapt to the urgent challenges of our time.

The second session of the Transforming Engineering Education Learning Hub continued the conversation on how engineering education must evolve to equip future engineers for the complex sustainability challenges of our time.

Building on the first session’s call to bridge the gap between academic theory and real-world application, this session explored how technical knowledge, ethical responsibility, and social awareness must come together to form a new model of engineering education. The discussion focused on the competencies, mindsets, knowledge and values needed to integrate sustainability into engineering curricula.

The session opened with Savina Carluccio, Executive Director of ICSI, setting the context for the discussion. Savina spoke to the intersections of mindsets, skills, and knowledge, and how they come together to form competencies. These overlapping elements reflect the integrated nature of engineering and, together with experience and values, play a critical role in achieving sustainable development and tackling the systemic challenges we face.

Interaction of Knowledge, Mindsets, Skills, Values and Competencies. Adapted from OECD PISA 2018 Global Competence framework.

Joseph Price from UN Environment Programme (UNEP) emphasised these intersections and introduced the International Good Practice Principles for Sustainable Infrastructure, framing how systemic approaches and value-driven design must underpin all infrastructure education. He stressed that future engineers must understand sustainability not just as an add-on but as a core design principle, embedded from strategic planning through to implementation and evaluation.

Sectoral perspectives 

The session featured two presentations that brought together complementary perspectives from academia and the professional community.

Dr Jonathan Truslove, Education and Skills Lead at Engineers Without Borders UK, introduced the Global Responsibility Competency Compass – a framework to help institutions and individuals assess and cultivate the knowledge, skills, and mindsets needed for future engineers to respond effectively to global challenges. He highlighted the importance of going beyond technical excellence and equipping engineers with moral and systemic awareness to act responsibly in a rapidly changing world. To support this transformation, Dr. Truslove highlighted a range of open-access resources, including the Global Responsibility Learning Library and the Reimagined Degree Map, which provide educational materials for embedding global responsibility into learning outcomes; as well as initiatives such as the Engineering for People Design Challenge, which connects students to real-world challenges faced by communities globally.

Following this, Professor Julián Cortés Oggero from the University of Chile, shared how universities can embed sustainability as a core principle in engineering education. He underscored the need to align curricula with the SDGs in a systemic way, and to promote both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration – engaging not only academic fields but also communities and industry partners. Drawing on examples such as the university’s Seismic Risk Program, Energy Poverty Network, and Complementary Certification in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies, he illustrated how experiential learning fosters engineers who are technically skilled, socially conscious, and capable of addressing complex global challenges. Professor Cortés Oggero concluded with a call for institutional commitment to cultivate engineers as agents of sustainable transformation.

Reflections on how to transform engineering education

In breakout groups, participants joined discussions to exchange experiences and identify priority areas for embedding sustainability in engineering education. Across the groups, several common themes emerged:

• Mindset transformation as the foundation of change – Participants agreed that without a shift in mindset, competencies risk remaining theoretical. Engineers must move beyond purely technical solutions to embrace systems thinking and social and ethical reflection. 

• Integration of social sciences and ecology – The groups emphasised that sustainable engineering is as much about people and values as it is about design. Embedding courses that address behavioural change, ecological impacts, intergenerational equity, and circular economy principles can help foster a holistic worldview.

• Bringing interdisciplinarity to life through experience – Participants noted the need for opportunities that bring together multiple disciplines and sectors, encouraging collaboration and shared problem-solving. 

• Making systems thinking accessible – There was strong support for practical guidance and tools to help students learn how to navigate the interdisciplinary landscape, and to design interventions using systems approaches. Participants suggested incorporating real-world, multi-stakeholder projects where students can apply these methods in context.
• Institutional support and resources – Embedding sustainability requires not only motivated educators but also institutional backing. Participants stressed the importance of supportive leadership, training, and resource-sharing platforms to enable the transformation of engineering education.

As one group noted, “If people don’t adopt new mindsets, competencies may not be applied.” The message was clear: transforming engineering education is as much a cultural transformation as an academic one.

Watch a recording below:

The next session on 16 October Mainstreaming sustainable development in engineering education: Sharing Experiences and Approaches on How to Integrate into the Curriculum, will build on these discussions by showcasing how institutions are practically implementing sustainability across teaching, curriculum design, and partnerships with industry.

Participants will hear real-world examples of institutional change and explore how curriculum transformation can connect engineering education with societal needs, fostering professionals ready to lead in a rapidly changing world.

You’ll see presentations from:

Cindy Anderston, Strategy Consultant, Engineering for One Planet

Read more:  ISLe Learning Hub