DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNICATION TRAINING PARADIGM FOR ENGINEERS

Engineers carry a stigma of being ineffective communicators, and various calls for teaching them communication skills have been performed. In the context of Bologna changes in European university space, such calls seem to be even more important, since the demand of employability and applicability of graduate engineers is one of the most important arguments for change. Many engineering educational institutions (mostly universities) have made efforts to improve the situation: they have included rhetoric or communication courses into the existing study programs. Rhetoric/communication teachers, who used to undertake similar courses in the language and literature departments, have mainly taught these rhetoric courses. However no special rhetoric/communication courses have been developed for engineers. The fact is that research in the field of rhetoric for engineers has not got a lot of scientific research yet. This paper will attempt to given answers to the following question: What kind of communication skills does an engineer require? A rhetoric course, designed for engineers and a didactic model for rhetoric education of engineers will be presented and evaluated.