1 - Introduction

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of different chapters of the book. It also discusses the importance of lifelong learning skill in career growth. In an era of prevalent electronic information, information overload, and tight academic and corporate budgets, those with the best-developed skills stand a much better chance of achieving lifelong career success. Educators seek to prepare students as thoroughly as possible for their careers, and employers seek to hire versatile and competent employees. Today, students, educators as well as employers agree on the added value of lifelong-learning skills in the face of the information overload of the digital information age. Employers in engineering firms and scientific research centers are all equally desirous of seeing these skills developed during the educational phase of a science or engineering career. Creativity, awareness of context, and successful communication patterns are all critical elements of the successful engineer and cannot be developed without information literacy and lifelong-learning skills. This chapter discusses the foundational elements necessary for understanding the context of lifelong learning skills as career strength. It elaborates the methods that instructors and librarians use to teach and to develop students' lifelong-learning skills. The chapter also introduces internship as a vital component to the development of a scientist or engineer with a career path open to any future direction.