Influence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) on the System of the Engineering Education

Abstract

© 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The theme of the “Industry 4.0” has become relevant. Forecasts of futurologists are starting to come true; the boundaries between the physical, digital and biological spheres are blurring. The breadth and depth of these changes foreshadow a radical transformation of entire branches and areas of social life, including the system of Higher Education. Given the high rate of these changes the Education System should now be focused on training the Engineer of Future “Not Yet Existing Professions”. Therefore, the goal of our study is to identify the requirements for the engineering education under the influence of the 4th Industrial Revolution. This study applied qualitative data analysis. The data were taken from different sources and literature and then it were discussed and analyzed. The soft skills of a competitive professional can be listed as follows: (i) IT skills - the role of ownership of information technologies is increasing (ii) Working with information skills. Big Data implies “information literacy”, which includes searching for information, assessing the quality and reliability of information sources, as well as the ability to effectively use the information received and share it (iii) Teamwork skills. The role of an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving, which implies the possession of professional interaction and teamwork skills, taking into account intercultural differences, is growing (iv) Flexibility, adaptability and learning. The high speed of transformations will lead to the need to retrain and change the profession, which means that the role of self-development skills increases based on the principles of lifelong learning (v) Cognitive skills. The development of the above skills is impossible without the development of the cognitive sphere, including reflection, metacognition and critical thinking. The study of the requirements for professionals in the conditions of the 4th Industrial Revolution showed the need of development the soft skills.