Status quo and challenges of professional Systems Engineering education in industrial practice

This paper explores the status quo, challenges and objectives of professional education in Systems Engineering (SE) through quantitative interview research. The study emphasizes the increasing complexity of modern products driven by digitalization, automation, and sustainability concerns, which necessitates a robust SE framework for effective development and management. Using Mayring's qualitative content analysis method, this research identifies four main challenges in SE education: 'Mindset,' 'Maturity of the companies,' 'Language' and 'Holism. The study outlines further three main objectives of SE education: enabling SE competencies and skills, supporting change management and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. Additionally, the research identifies the status quo of various learning formats used in SE professional education. Finally, different strategies in professional education of SE are derived from the experts' answers. The importance of structured SE education programs to address the identified challenges in the engineering field is underscored by the findings. Finally, a critical discussion of the research findings is given.