Abstract
The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of the factors on the problem-solving competency of engineering graduates. To this end, we use the 2016 Korean survey data among the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) survey data conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In summary of the study’s major results, older people and females have lower problem-solving competencies (Model 1); higher literacy and numeracy competencies lead to higher problem-solving competencies (Model 2); and those with more experiences of sharing work-related information have higher problem-solving competencies. However, those who give more presentations have lower problem-solving competencies (Model 3), and those who make frequent use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to send or receive e-mails or conduct real-time discussions have higher problem-solving competencies (Model 4). These results present implications from the two perspectives of “sustainability” and “integration.” Sustainability is further classified into the following two perspectives: (1) sustainability from the longitudinal viewpoint of middle school, high school, and then job education, and (2) sustainability from the cross-sectional perspective of sustainable organization cultures. In addition, the implications of integration are based on common growth with other related core competencies besides problem-solving competencies.
Highlights
The problem-solving competency is one of the major competencies with which people should be equipped during the Fourth Industrial Revolution era
The problem-solving competency is the most high-dimensional ability among humans’ cognitive functions, and it is important as a core competency that can embrace numerous other competencies [5,6]
The study secondarily aims to deduce significant implications from the lifelong education perspective based on sustainability from middle and high school through to job education in search of methods for improving the problem-solving competencies of adults in the engineering field
Summary
The problem-solving competency is one of the major competencies with which people should be equipped during the Fourth Industrial Revolution era. Afterwards, during the 1990s, the concept of competencies was expanded when the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conducted a large-scale project called the definition and selection of key competencies (DeSeCo) in which competencies were understood as the general abilities that people should possess in order to succeed in modern society [1]. With the establishment of the concept of core competencies, various academic definitions were introduced along with several types of constitutive subordinate competencies. The problem-solving competency is the most high-dimensional ability among humans’ cognitive functions, and it is important as a core competency that can embrace numerous other competencies [5,6]
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