Worldwide shortage of engineers
Our modern, ever-growing communication and technology society is essentially driven by knowledge and engineering. New techniques and opportunities continuously promote the communication and technology-driven sectors, particularly in the BRIC countries, and grant the industry huge growth rates. Demand for engineers will continue to grow as we move toward an all-electric and all-technical society. In addition, we need sustainable development to drive forth the steadily rising demand for developing sustainable mobility and energy solutions.
The technological progress in the world demands more and more engineers. Nowadays, a shortage of engineers is indeed already noticeable. Worldwide engineers are sought to meet the demand. The lack of engineers is palpable and the competition to recruit and retain talented engineers is fiercely disputed. Also in Germany a huge shortage of engineers is registered. According to the VDI (Association of German Engineers), 90.000 new engineers are required in Germany every year. And the problem of skills shortage will significantly intensify the current situation until 2020. Siemens alone face a gap of up to 14.000 employees until 2020 - especially technicians and engineers. Young professionals in the classical engineering professions in Germany, holding a master degree, earn around 45.000 to 50.000 euros a year on their first job. Thus, they are among the top earners among university graduates.
Career Perspectives as a GPE graduate
The gained knowledge and qualification through participation in the study program allows our alumni to access technology-oriented companies and organizations and enables them to be entrepreneurs. The specialized structure of GPE is, that students need to select courses from the module groups production, engineering, management, intercultural communication as well as special profile. Students learn not only engineering related topics, but also economic and management topics. GPE graduates are often employed in managerial positions, and act as interface in multinational companies. Its international character is advantageous for international interfaces and intercultural communication within a company. Thanks to the variety of topics highlighted in the course of study and the possibility for students to set their own focus, graduates can work as engineers in the project or production industry, consultancy field, in the policy area, at training and research facilities. Some typical professional activities of our graduates in consultancy, industry and policy are:
- Quality assurance
- Supplier development
- Global supply chain management
- Logistics
- Sustainability
- Construction / engineering design
- Production engineering
- Production planning and control
- International and intercultural project management
- Sales engineering
- Renewables business development (from very small to utility-scale applications)
- Renewables power plant design
- System integration of renewable energy systems
- Electronics engineering, system monitoring and control devices
- Research and development at universities and other research institutes
- Teaching of engineers or other occupational groups
- Renewables industry development in NGOs, industry associations and development cooperations
- Consultancy to administrative and supervisory agencies at community, regional, or federal level, NGOs, environmental organizations
and many more.
