How Teachers Can Develop Tomorrow’s Game-Changers

It's tough being a teacher, especially in the times we live in.
 

As product development becomes multifaceted and more complex, our engineering graduates find themselves in an uncomfortable situation when entering the workplace — they discover that they’re not yet future-ready.
 

There are no two ways about it — the skills gap and talent shortage are a reality. The disconnect between what students learn in the classroom and what employers actually require has grown to become a crisis that threatens the long-term viability of multiple disciplines.

Yet, there's an urgent need for new engineering and digital skills to create sustainable innovations that will bolster our future. Teachers now have a unique opportunity to shape this future — by transforming their learning environment and processes to create a new kind of classroom.

Consumers now want better, more sustainable and more sophisticated products that require the ingenuity and expertise of engineers across multiple disciplines. It’s no wonder that industries are now on the hunt for skilled multidisciplinary engineers who can work in a collaborative environment.
 

This is the landscape in which our students will be expected to perform as tomorrow's engineers and game-changers. To thrive in this future, students must become versatile and acquire knowledge that goes far beyond the pages of their textbooks.

The teachers’ role becomes increasingly pivotal here. They now have the opportunity to push students to think outside the box — by utilizing capabilities such as the virtual twin technology to craft a new, hands-on learning experience made possible through captivating lesson plans, exercises and industry-realistic projects.
 

However, teachers are encumbered by several challenges:

• The industry transformation is continuous and fast. Every day, it changes how people work and the skills they need to tackle complex technological challenges. Teachers have to continuously adapt their curriculum to take these changes into account, but they lack the necessary time to stay informed and update their courses.
• Setting up a new solution — and being a driver of change — is not easy. The academic world is also bound by many curriculum-related constraints. Teachers often lack the resources (such as industry use cases and industry data) and the time to implement change of this scope and scale.
• Students are having trouble staying motivated and engaged during class. A study by the National Academy of Sciences has shown that students engaged in traditional lectures are 1.5 times more likely to fail in their courses than students engaged in hands-on learning.⁴ Hands-on learning can positively affect students' curiosity, teamwork and enthusiasm.
   

It’s time for a change — one that can give teachers the freedom to tap into the global knowledge base of the industry and the community, develop lesson plans that are always engaging and up-to-date, and provide students with the right skills to make them future-ready and boost their employability.

The future of engineering requires developmental silos between teams to be broken down. As the world becomes circular, sustainable and complex, multidisciplinary engineering becomes the only way to tackle real-world problems and increase the quality and sustainability of products. Collaboration must become de rigueur from the very beginning.
 

That’s why it’s encouraging to see courses supplementing textbook problems with experience-based projects that connect different disciplines and push students to think critically. Teachers can further nurture this environment — and prepare students for the unpredictability of the working world — by empowering students to develop their knowledge and skills through the following approaches:

These approaches can be implemented simultaneously within one collaborative learning environment, seamlessly delivering industry-grade teaching experiences to students.
 

This is where our Education Experience comes in.

Dassault Systèmes has been a catalyst for industrial innovation for over 40 years, providing value to more than 350,000 customers worldwide. Our Education Experience can help teachers develop tomorrow's game-changers by delivering industry best practices and knowledge right into the classroom. This is how we'll help them pull it off:
 

Experiential teaching

• As part of our Education Experience, 3DEXPERIENCE CATIA offers a more organized and integrated environment. It is role-based, providing specific tools relevant to different engineering roles. This integration allows digital continuity for seamless transitions between design and simulation tasks.
• Rather than juggling various software across disciplines, students will now have the opportunity to work on a unified platform — and one single source of truth. This approach mirrors industry practices, allowing them to follow the complete product lifecycle from design to manufacturing within the same environment.

The virtual twin

• The virtual twin refers to digital representations of real-world systems or processes shown at scale. It allows teachers to enhance the learning process by designing, simulating and validating complex products and processes within a virtual environment.
• With the virtual twin, students can experiment with different design approaches and analyze design consequences within a safe, virtual workspace.

Teachers have the power to shape the next generation of game-changers by giving them the skills to thrive in a complex, multidisciplinary world. With our Education Experience and 3DEXPERIENCE CATIA, they're fully equipped to bring a new engineering classroom to life. This experience offers a no-compromise learning environment for students augmented by a thriving community of leaders, experts and peers.

Tomorrow's classroom is now within reach. All that remains is to set it in motion.

¹ "Artificial Intelligence Enters the Workforce: Cengage Group’s 2023 Employability Report Exposes New Hiring Trends, Shaky Graduate Confidence" by Cengage (July 2023)

² "Towards 2023: the European Year of Skills" by the European Union (November 2022)

³ "The $8.5 Trillion Talent Shortage" by Korn Ferry

⁴ "Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics" by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) (April 2014)