Challenge-Based Learning: An Essential Tool for Fostering Future Engineering Competencies

The predominant educational models have been competency-based teaching for over ten years. Every academic program must have general (soft) competencies and disciplinary (hard) competencies related to each field of study have been declared. However, as the world changes, so does the priority of the required competencies by the stakeholders. However, for the training of new professionals, especially in engineering, new skills have initially been declared not by academic entities but by employers, such as sustainable skills, digital skills, and others, closer to reality. So, the concept of socially-oriented education, exposing students to real situations where they are tested on their acquired abilities, is increasingly demanded by Universities. Here we report the findings of using challenge-based learning (CBL) to achieve these competencies. Our results indicate that the CBL meets the necessary methodological aspects to develop the required skills to face the labor market and that society demands today’s Engineers to transform reality. In addition, they indicate that CBL is a powerful and suitable tool for developing the "Skills of the future".