Continuing Engineering Education and Lifelong Learning

About the group

Engineers need to have the competences to adapt, up- and re-skill – developing these competences through education and refining throughout their working life. This ability, along with ongoing (lifelong/continuing) learning, enables engineers to tackle the current and emergent needs of society.

This SIG brings together those (such as universities, industry, professional engineering bodies, and trade unions) interested in supporting engineers to develop themselves throughout their life of learning.

The SIG recently published a Position Paper on Lifelong Learning and Continuing Engineering Education, that frames our call for a more systematic approach to Continuing Engineering Education and lifelong learning.

Objectives

Create a community of practitioners, researchers and policy makers and influencers that will:

• Contribute to European (and wider international) policy and practices in Continuing Engineering Education (CEE) and Lifelong Learning (LLL);
• Conduct research and evaluation to advance practice and conceptual understanding of CEE and LLL;
• Engage with other SEFI SIGs, recognising that CEE and LLL relate to other SIGs;
• Collaborate internationally to share practices to progress European effectiveness in CEE and LLL.

Activities

• Regular SIG meetings to support knowledge sharing by sharing practices, shared opportunities and challenges;
• Organisation of themed workshops (including at SEFI Annual Conference);
• Organise events (webinars) for the wider CEE and LLL community;
• Bring together members to research and evaluate current and emergent topics in CEE and LLL.

Key Publications

• Borri, C. and Maffioli, F. (2007) TREE: Teaching and Research in Engineering in Europe.
• Carrión García, Andrés & Carot, Jose & Soeiro, Alfredo & Hämäläinen, Kauko & Boffo, Stefano & Pausits, Attila & Murphy, Mike & Marhl, Marko & Vidal, Javier & Mora, Jose & Padfield, Christopher. (2012). Green Paper. Fostering and Measuring ´Third Mission´ in Higher Education Institutions. 10.13140/RG.2.2.25015.11687.
• Horvat, M. and Reichl, F. (1993) ‘EuCEENet: European Continuing Engineering Education Network’, European Journal of Engineering Education, 18(2), pp. 191–199. doi: 10.1080/03043799308923233.
• Klus, J.P., Markkula, M., Venho, J., JARVENPM, A., Sirkeinen, U. and AHLROOS, R., 1985. Effective technology transfer. Helsinki: Katkaoffset.
• Lappalainn, P & Markkula, M. (2009) European Continuing Engineering Education Conceptualizing the Lessons Learned
• Markkula, M., Miettinen, K. and Lindquist, K. (1993). EuroPro: A Project to Create a European Professional Development Degree. European Journal of Engineering Education, 18(2), pp.155-159.

History of the Group

The Continuing Engineering Education and Lifelong Learning SIG was created at the SEFI General Assembly in 1980 in Paris, France, reflecting worldwide interest in Continuing Education. CEE was a new emergent mission, and an opportunity for universities and industry. This period saw an open-minded, collaborative approach that helped individuals and institutions learn and exchange knowledge through annual working group seminars.

The 1990s and 2000s saw the expansion of CEE and LLL within Europe, with highlights including the development of EuroPro (European Professional Degree), with the objective “to develop a framework for continuing professional development of engineers”¹, the launching of the European Continuing Engineering Education Network (EuCEENet)², the focus of the 1996 SEFI Annual Conference in Vienna being LLL during the European Year of Lifelong Learning, and the launching of the Thematic Network Engineering Education for Europe (THENUCE) project in 1997³.

In recent years, the impact of digitalisation and globalisation has come to the fore, and continues to do so. Recent work has continued to focus on different aspects, including 1) what we are offering in CEE, 2) how we are offering CEE, 3) to whom are we offering, and 4) how we support those that deliver CEE. In 2025, the SEFI Position Paper on Lifelong Learning was published, serving as a basis for our future discussions and work. In 2025 the SIG also celebrated its 45^th anniversary at the SEFI Annual Conference in Tampere.

A full poster celebrating and outlining 45 years of CEE & LLL SIG history can be read here.

¹ See Markkula, Miettinen & Lindquist, 1993 for information; paper in EJEE, Vol 18 (2)
² See Horvat and Reichl (1993)
³ Co-ordinator Viktor de Kosinsky