Benefits of a Project-Based Curriculum: Engineering Employers’ Perspectives

As the final phase of a mixed-methods study that explored the impacts of intensive project work on alumni of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), a technology-focused university featuring a project-based curriculum, an external party conducted in-depth interviews with ten employers of engineering alumni to determine how a project-based curriculum prepares students for the engineering workplace. The employers interviewed ranged from a Fortune 500 multinational conglomerate to a not-for-profit organization and a branch of the U.S. military. This paper discusses qualitative findings from these interviews. All employers interviewed indicated that they regularly and actively seek out graduates from WPI to hire as employees. While employers noted that graduates from WPI possessed especially strong skills in the areas of communication and collaboration—qualities that earlier phases of the study showed were strengthened through participation in project-based learning—not all of the employers were aware that the graduates had participated in project-based learning. Employers who were aware that a project-based curriculum featured prominently at WPI identified experience doing project work—in and of itself—as a reason to hire graduates. They further indicated that a project-based curriculum makes recruitment, training, integration, and advancement of employees easier for employers. Findings of the study overall indicate that a project-based learning curriculum is beneficial not only to the students who participate in it but to the engineering employers who hire them, as well.