Hong Kong Polytechnic University asked local employers what they thought of engineering graduates - and got some very frank answers. The research may be from the Far East, but they apply equally in the UK.
Abstract
The beliefs and opinions of captains of industry are important for understanding the challenges of developing a profession which needs to move beyond the purely technical to one where cultural sensitivity, language, and communication prowess are seen as equally relevant for a global industry. This paper reports on research to investigate the views of key building services professionals in Hong Kong regarding new graduates entering the industry. Nine BSE representatives from Government, university, contracting, and consulting sectors participated in in-depth interviews. Findings suggest that industry could play a stronger role in making itself more attractive to graduates, but academia had to act as the initial motivator for the development of graduate soft skill acquisition; professional bodies must give support to both education and training sectors.

1. Introduction
SARTOR (Standards And Routes To Registration) recognises that "employers are increasingly critical of graduate engineers and insist that they should have the key skills of communication, teamworking and management"1. This is a reflection of the changing circumstances surrounding engineering businesses now having to operate more and more within an increasingly competitive global marketplace. In terms of Building Services Engineering (BSE), prospects are good for UK graduates but only because the overall number of graduates entering the market is declining2. In April 2001 CIBSE started a debate on the future of building services engineering education "and how things can be turned around"3. There is concern both that the number of BSE graduates is falling in UK and that education and training may not be meeting the expectation and needs of potential clients. CIBSE is aware of the importance of good communication skills, the need to ensure that university courses meet the needs of industry, the role that employers have to play in developing their requirements, and the necessity for building stronger bridges between industry and academia.

Although Hong Kong can only be described as a microcosm of the global building services industry, its BSE businesses have a remarkable international pedigree. Because of this, the industry has always had connections beyond its local boundaries, and its practitioners are used to working with nationals from many other parts of the world. The beliefs and opinions of captains of industry can therefore help practitioners elsewhere in the world to understand the challenges of developing a profession which needs to move beyond the purely technical to one of diversification where cultural sensitivity, language, and communication prowess are becoming essential attributes in the education of building services engineers for international practice. This paper reports on research to investigate how key Hong Kong employers within the building services profession view new graduates entering the industry, especially in relation to the soft skills and knowledge required for such businesses to operate in an increasingly global marketplace.

2. Data Collection
Nine representatives were selected for interview from the Advisory Board Committee of the Department of Building Services, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) because they were known to have a commitment and interest in the work of the BSE Department, and because the organisations they represented employed building services graduates (Government, university, contractors, consultants). The Hong Kong SAR Government's Architectural Services Department provides professional services and advice for procuring and maintaining government and quasi-government buildings and facilities in Hong Kong; similarly the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department provides technical support and advice and drafts and enforces safety legislation relating to building services, electrical, mechanical, gas and electronic engineering. Consultancy practices covered businesses with British, Australian, and Hong Kong pedigrees and had wide ranging building services interests both locally, within China, the Asia-Pacific region, and with joint ventures in Canada and Italy. Contractors tended to work at a more local Hong Kong level though one had headquarter links to UK and Australia. Within the university and public utility organisations, international connections were apparent in the sense that the estate manager interviewed was British and had many international clients on his campus, whilst the utility company had a legacy of English speaking expatriate management, and partnerships with overseas consultancies on large work projects.

In-depth interviews took place with the sector representatives between February-March 2001, generally at the interviewee's place of work. Although a pre-defined questionnaire had been designed, this was used only as a guide for ensuring consistency of types of questions asked. The aim was to determine the opinions and perceptions of industry stakeholders towards the communicative skills of their graduate employees, and examine the reasons for and causes of existing situations. It was felt that data generated as a result of qualitative research analysis using the unstructured interview techniques would help to evaluate the hypothesis that engineers are often perceived as being poor communicators, and assist in the identification of proactive steps to raise the awareness for soft skill development amongst building services engineers.

Each interview took approximately one hour and was conducted in English. Pre-determined themes covered the expectations of the respondents towards graduate communicative proficiency, any perceived difficulties in verbal and written communication, and the variety of communicative techniques building services engineers may have to use in the course of their career. However, because the local language in Hong Kong is Cantonese, the formal and international business language English, and the working language for Mainland China Putonghua, the replies from respondents were often comparative and qualitative. This in turn generated a wealth of information that had not been sought within the framework of the original hypothesis but which allowed for a wider understanding of the communicative skill needs of building services engineers working within a diversified building services sector.

3. Understanding of the industry
There was some concern as to graduates overall knowledge of how building services companies operate. One respondent felt very strongly that full-time students do not take up sufficient opportunities to work within industry during their academic years; others also suggested that whilst students are good on theory when they enter the workplace, they often lack 'hands-on experience' and knowledge of big projects - 'Even after two years they don't know what real building services engineering is'. This was partly put down to the fact that students failed to take up opportunities such as summer jobs with engineering firms, and that 'lecturers need more contact with industry so students can gain breadth and width'. Generally there was a feeling that there were insufficient links between academics and industry. Many respondents were active in the Hong Kong Institute of Engineers (HKIE), the local branch of CIBSE and other professional groups. They appeared to view membership of a professional body as an important factor in a student's on-going development. However, there was disappointment expressed that 'students don't have initiative' to join [as student members] or go on visits' or seemed to recognise the importance of HKIE / CIBSE membership within the building services industry. There was also a sense of disappointment that students failed to capitalize on a valued link between practitioners in the industry and their academic studies.

There is an implication here that all three main building services stakeholders – industry, academia, and the professional body - could play a stronger role in making the profession more attractive to future generations by enhancing the links each has to the other. Similar views have been expressed in the UK where "it was suggested that engineers are probably their own worst publicists"4. Such synergy would both strengthen student understanding of the nature of building services in the workplace, and create a better appreciation of the skills and knowledge needed within the industry. But building relationships and getting the message across that building services engineering is an environmentally-friendly and desirable profession with variety, challenges and career opportunities is as taxing for industrialists in Hong Kong, as it is to CIBSE in the UK2. An issue which may need more attention is the image which professional bodies project themselves. They may not be doing enough to raise their own profile, with potentially interested parties. Or, as in UK, problems may arise because of "the unwieldy nature of the profession: the British Engineering Council . . . brings together 53 separate engineering institutions"5.

4. Quality of graduates
However, whilst CIBSE's concern has its origins in declining numbers, the number of building services engineers generally has increased in Hong Kong partly as a result of expansion of university places and partly due to the building boom within the economy between 1980-2000. (In Hong Kong the number of BSE graduates has increased by a factor of five during the last ten years.) However, respondents suggested they had seen falling standards of building services graduates with this changing nature of the university system, as students who might previously have chosen the profession now had the option of alternative engineering courses as well as a range of other disciplines, unavailable in the past. Indeed there was a strong feeling that 'engineering is not the top priority choice for university entry so [building services] doesn't get the best graduates'. In addition, in Hong Kong, qualification entry levels are also associated with attaining certain standards of English, so any downward trend was also felt to affect second language proficiency as well. In addition, one contractor believed there was little incentive for graduates towards continuous learning and development because they 'can now [easily] get a job in the last ten years and lots of people get promoted anyway'. A consultant respondent suggested this situation had also helped to create a money mindset amongst employees generally.

Industrialists were not unsympathetic towards academic departments facing increasing competition across engineering disciplines. But their main focus was that this was affecting quality of building services graduates which they felt the introduction of a 4-year degree programmes with enhanced language training might help to counteract. Building services professionals in Hong Kong are particularly anxious to encourage students to recognise the importance of language skills, as they see this skill as one means of retaining Hong Kong's position as the middleman to China. Language skills and in particular English proficiency are also an issue which is causing concern for engineering companies worldwide6,7. In Hong Kong, although the majority of the PolyU's B.Eng Building Services Engineering students still take a three-year degree, four-year undergraduate degree programmes look increasingly likely in the near future. However, in UK the number of pure BSE four-year or more degree programmes appears static at five, according to UCAS Building Services degree courses between 2001 and 20028. Regarding behavioural traits towards job-hopping and money, similar attitudes to Hong Kong BSE graduates have been reported of engineering undergraduates in Singapore9.

5. Foreign language proficiency
The focus of building services organisations in Hong Kong has changed since the handover to China. There are now more links with Mainland China, the use of local sub-contractors within Hong Kong has grown as the number of large hongs, formally British dominated, has declined, and Government and quasi-government bodies and developers, and public utilities are far less British focused. Respondents from consulting companies generally still had good international contacts working with foreign sub-contractors on Hong Kong's new airport project for example, joint venture staff located in Europe or America, or parent offices located in other parts of the Asia region or Australia. Contracting respondents however, now tended to deal with more local rather than foreign businesses. This has particularly impacted language skills in the sense that local or regional business activities are conducted in Cantonese or increasingly in Putonghua, providing fewer opportunities for building services graduates to use English, especially whilst at the lower levels of their career ladder. However, the general consensus of those interviewed was that the 'the value of HK is because it is a dual language place' where 'if we want to uphold HK as an international city we need to reinforce English - tertiary institutions serve as a bridge to professional work'.

In other words, academia is seen not only as the place to provide the foundations of a technical career in building services but increasingly as the provider, or at least the motivator for the development of soft skill acquisition. Unless tertiary institutions can meet these requirements, building services industrialists in Hong Kong fear that the building services sector will lose its current advantage over China, as the preferred interlocutor between the Mainland and foreign companies. This fear may be well founded as several respondents stated their belief that Mainland colleagues generally had a better command of English than Hong Kong engineers, whilst there is a general recognition that English standards are dropping within the SAR10. In comparison, most Western Continental European engineering courses include language study within their program, as do many Pacific Rim programs, and increasingly several American universities11. In the UK the only pure BSE course to offer a year abroad as part of the curriculum is offered by the University of Northumbria. This suggests that those building services engineering programs which are beefing up their approach to multi-language skills, may be producing graduates much better qualified to meet the needs of the companies with an international perspective.

6. Verbal skills
Respondents indicated that well developed communication skills generally were essentially lacking in many building services graduates – 'Now students don't read so much, and play computer games instead of communicating - this is where the difference [between them and us] comes'. Where consultant building services companies, Government and public utilities had international contacts an ability to communicate clearly was essential for building business relationships – 'It is important to be able to sell the company not just on the technical side [but] to be able to make an attractive specification'. Making presentations internally and publicly, especially at senior levels was also a common activity. Ability to think-on-your-feet and logically express oneself were all considered important attributes for the professional engineer – 'New Zealand and Australia have deregulated markets and are more competitive so it is important when at conferences to be able to communicate well for experience sharing'. In addition Government officials had to learn to deal with the legislature, and the press. There was also a question of image to preserve because 'protocol is very important. Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation group members are very good in English [whilst] Mainland officials speak English with a US accent – their grammar is perfect and the way they challenge [others]'.

The development of communication skills is rarely given high priority within engineering curriculums. Nguyen's research however, echoes that of the respondent industrialists by demonstrating that an ability to think logically and communicate ideas effectively are very important aspects for the 'ideal engineer"12. Within industry, good speakers and presenters are highly valued, and where training is given in these areas it tends to very focused towards the needs of the business. But in academia, if students are given communication training at all it will almost certainly be at a more generic level, perhaps by a careers development specialist or special purposes unit. Collins, Li and Cheung13 suggest this disengagement from an engineering context creates a problem for students in terms of relevancy and effectiveness for assignments, and that motivation is best enhanced when academic content is more fully integrated with real-life communication skills. Palmer's study found that contrary to widely held beliefs, engineers do not dislike public speaking14. However, in recent research of Hong Kong building services students15 findings clearly indicated that students both want and need support if they are to develop their presentation and oral skills per se.

7. Reading, writing and understanding
Hong Kong building services graduates mainly need writing skills for email communication or for writing brief log book reports. The Government, consultants, the university organisation and contractors who have branches or joint ventures (JV) abroad (China excepted) appear to use email quite regularly, communicating with colleagues in the international lingua franca of English. At senior levels staff have to write strategic papers, proposals, more complex documents and maybe even conference papers. Respondents felt that is was 'necessary [for graduates] to read and write comfortably', partly because they need to be able to use and understand specifications, contracts and standards which are generally in English. Graduates were considered better at writing than speaking but lacked skills in letter writing, logical development of ideas, and reviewing their writing process. Reading skills were important for keeping abreast of developments within the industry but not all industrialists believed graduates always understood what they read or heard - 'They get about 70%' of what is said to them.' Culturally there may be a mismatch in understanding between foreign staff working together. For example, the British respondent suggested 'it may only be later you realise things were not done quite as you expected and that may have been because of a communication misunderstanding'.

Industrialists clearly expect graduates to articulate ideas clearly as much in written as in spoken form. In the recent study of building services graduates by Gilleard and Gilleard15 almost one third of students said they experienced problems with vocabulary. Although these particular graduates were non-native speakers of English, this phenomenon appears common amongst engineering students per se. Ahearn5 suggests that engineers are often considered poor communicators because they lack "vocabulary, metaphors and themes" that allow them to express their 'engineering-ness' adequately. The greater introduction of technical writing courses within engineering schools as El-Raghy16 suggests, could perhaps help mitigate this cause and effect cycle between weak vocabulary skills and ineffective writing or understanding/reading. However, building services engineers always need to be aware of the cultural dimension when communicating with foreign nationals that could give rise to misrepresentation or different interpretation of the message between the two parties. In China for example, students reading and then writing or speaking about foreign texts apparently find it difficult to grasp the idea of connotation and are unable to distinguish between background and specific topic, or often display a cultural reluctance to present balanced arguments in their writing17.

8. Communication training within the building services industry
Respondents expected graduates to be self-motivated in terms of continuous professional development (CPD). They were generally supportive if graduates asked to attend training courses but tended to feel that in-house writing programmes 'can't help them very much' whilst 'short courses are not effective'. Generally the consensus was that if graduates were of 'promotable material' then they should display 'better initiative and don't need us to tell them how to improve'. That said, the findings indicate local Hong Kong industrialists did spend time correcting and feeding back comments to the original writer as a form of top-down self-learning – one estimating as much as 10% of his time. The industrialists saw themselves as teachers and mentors - 'I work as a teacher to my own standard' - and guardians of their staff and company - 'I polish standards [otherwise] it affects image.' Their self professed aim was to indirectly encourage action and motivation to improve writing and language skills, as well as send a powerful message that good written communication skills were important for building services professional careers. Significantly, the one Western respondent in the survey rarely checked and amended letters as he felt this might involve 'loss-of-face' and be demotivational.

Local Hong Kong industrialists showed considerable Confucian orthodoxy in terms of personally mentoring and guiding the writing skills of their graduate employees. This approach was believed to be more effective than graduates attending courses probably because the power and authority embodied in the Chinese hierarchical expert/learner relationship is culturally expected as well as accepted 18. Yet, graduates were also expected to take personal responsibility for their own short-comings. This apparent dichotomy towards developing good communication skills may be explained by socio-cultural changes taking place with Chinese Asian societies. On the one hand industry generally remains very traditional towards its staff whilst on the other now recognising that engineers often "lack qualities such as . . . creativity, interest, motivation"9 essential for national companies to maintain a leading edge over big multi-national competition. The findings imply engineers worldwide have a reputation, amongst practitioners, for weak verbal, and poor report writing and communication skills19. However, whilst training new skills is critical for business success, both industry and engineering schools need to take account of the cultural perspective of those undertaking soft skills training. Development, for example, of communication skills may need different approaches if the target building services engineers come from differing cultural dimensions characterized by differing learning styles20.

9. Whither the future of communication skills for building services graduates?
The degree of commitment of building services graduates to the industry is clearly a worry that extends beyond CIBSE and the profession in the UK. Hong Kong practitioners are as concerned as any other building services manager in the world, that links between industry and academia need to be improved if graduates are to develop greater loyalty to the profession. At the same time professional bodies themselves need to beef up their image if the general perception of building services is not to languish with other engineering disciplines in the netherworld of a sub-branch of the sciences per se. Jones11 and Grandin and Dehmel6 have put the case for developing more industry internships as part of engineering courses, whilst Lilley4 describes a seminar between industry and educationalists favouring increased use of young graduates working with school children and mandatory visits and work experience for children, teachers and careers advisors alike as part of the school curriculum. If building services professionals were determined to create a virtuous circle of partnership, involving practitioners, academics, students, graduates, schools and representative bodies, the image of the profession as a challenging, fun and fulfilling career could be fostered from an early age, enhanced during undergraduate days, and maintained into employment.

In addition, the diversity of engineering specialisms that have emerged during the 20th century, and greater opportunities for job hopping are diluting both the attractions of a building services career and the motivation to develop multi-skills. Building services programmes have to start attracting greater value in the eyes of both graduates and the profession. Four year degrees, top up MEng certification for brighter graduates, post graduate courses – all of which are available for example in the Building Services Department at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University - have to become the norm. In terms of multi -skilling, Al-Jumaily and Stonyer21 have warned that students may resist taking 'soft' skill courses if the work is not engineering related. Collins et al13 report that the introduction of communication strategies into a Singaporean engineering curricula were only successful because language staff, not only ensured engineering content was totally integrated into soft skills development programs, but also were employed as members of the school. Industry and professional bodies must also play their part through support and sponsorship. And if new academic directions are to internationalise building services programmes, outside funding is often critical11. Only with such initiatives, can the profession expect to see greater motivation, better commitment and improved quality from its building services graduates.

One such quality that seems to be increasingly desirable in graduates is a facility with foreign languages. Whilst English will undoubtedly remain a major international language for communication, Merriden's7 research into UK engineering firms, and Grandin and Dehmels'6 case study across engineering professionals in Germany, Spain, France and England in a division of the TRW Corporation, reminds us that not all international business is done in English. The current study found that building services practitioners in Hong Kong still recognised the importance of English but also appreciated that business in China now required their building services engineers to have some proficiency in Putonghua. Clearly building services graduates who can speak at least a second language will have a competitive edge as BSE companies globalise their business interests. Yet, many educational programmes still do not integrate foreign language skills into building services curricula. The opportunities to do so are not wanting; many BSE academics have international links through research, visiting professor and personal contacts. Jones11 describes several programmes now underway in American and European universities to develop foreign language skills amongst engineers, but these initiatives still appear to be the exception rather than the rule for building services engineering curricula.

The respondents also emphasised that being able to develop relationships and create a positive image was crucial for building the profession's and an organisations' legitimacy. Dialogue now goes far beyond business or site meetings, into debate and presentation at conferences, and even public accountability at press and legislative forums. Yet even though the ability to discuss, argue, persuade and reason logically are obviously (at least to practitioners) very important skills, they continue to be elusive amongst building services graduates. Why should this be? Within Hong Kong, academic programmes are often perceived to lack depth, failing to match the communication skill needs of the engineering community22. But in fact these are worldwide concerns of industry practitioners. Batley's research19 found poor verbal skills and an inability to present themselves or persuade others were common characteristics of New Zealand engineers; Lyons23 argues American engineers urgently need "the basic tools and training to be able to argue successfully in boardrooms and town halls". This all suggests that building services curricula must now offer oral, presentation, and public speaking training. At the same time these skills should be clearly departmental-lead, forming an integral part of the building services student's professional education rather than viewed as optional or peripheral studies.

If building services engineers are to keep abreast professionally, they must also have the ability to both understand and correctly interpret technical data, and disseminate their own ideas adequately be that through email, letter, proposal, report or conference paper. Palmer14 found that whilst UK engineering students thought report writing skills training boring, they begrudgingly recognised its importance professionally. Gilleard and Gilleard's15 research similarly showed building services students were aware of advantages In being able to write good business documents whilst concurrently recognising that their understanding of technical terminology was not as good as perhaps it should be. As a result of this study, the Building Services Department at the PolyU has recently launched a training web site for soft skills development. Its aim is to provide self learning opportunities for students to boost their written skills by providing examples of report, proposal, research thesis and other academic/business-related templates using typical real-life engineering examples for guidance and motivation. The web site will also soon hold a glossary of technical terms and web site links to associated information. In the longer term the department is hoping to hire a communications consultant who will work with students in developing their final year project proposals, reports and presentations.

This research study indicates practitioners also expect BS graduates to take the initiative in improving their soft skills if these are found wanting. Yet Nguyen12 found commitment to encouraging lifelong learning techniques was not a high priority amongst engineering academics. This dichotomy suggests academics must now begin to consider more independent ways of developing their students' learning skills. At the same time, employers also have an obligation to support continuous professional development, but they too may need to review attitudes towards traditional training strategies if these are controlled and conforming – analogous to the way some respondents chose to improve their graduates' writing skills - to encourage greater individual empowerment and responsibility for learning24. Permeating both these issues is the impact of culture on learning, work and productivity. Educators must be willing to adapt their teaching methods to suit building services students from different cultures and must educate for cross-cultural communication if they are not to limit graduate opportunities in the global work force. Programmes also need to introduce cultural appreciation techniques so graduates emerge with some sensitivity to different cultural values and beliefs systems to avoid the kind of misunderstandings reported by the Western manager in this research report.

10. Conclusion
Globalisation is having an important impact on the building services industry. More and more firms are moving beyond their national boundaries as businesses diversify and new markets are created. Practitioners now need building services graduates with skills and techniques that will give them a leading edge when working across cultures. Building services education has traditionally emphasised technical knowledge and problem solving, neglecting the soft skills of foreign language proficiency, verbal communication, writing, expression of ideas, and cross-cultural appreciation. The industry itself, and professional bodies have become complacent in encouraging the multi-skilling of graduates. The quality of building services graduates is dropping and will only stop if industry, professional bodies and educators alike can inspire interest and enthusiasm for the profession before university choices are made. At tertiary level, students must be challenged beyond technical competency, trained creatively for lifelong learning, and educated in communication skills that will produce graduates with greater depth. Industry must underwrite educational programmes and arrange stimulating work opportunities for students during their degree years. Professional bodies must provide for continuous learning and give support to both the academic and industrial infrastructures so created. Only then will building services graduates have the attitudes, commitment and qualities to meet the needs of a rapidly changing global profession.