The competence of an engineer and how it is build through an apprenticeship programme: a tentative model

This paper presents some findings resulting from a four-year research aiming to identify what competence are developed by students following an apprenticeship program in engineering and what the developmental steps are in conjunction with the curriculum. The main findings presented here suggest: 1) that competence has three dimensions; 2) that the competence framework of an engineer has five main components; 3) that there are four main steps that comprise the competence development framework; 4) and that building competence results from three different and interlocking processes. Our competence framework is then discussed by comparing our graduates’ profile with those of other engineers in France, as well as with existing international standards for professional engineers.