In the last two decades there has been a growing emphasis on the professional skills that engineering graduates should posses to better function in an industry environment. Recent research primarily emphasizes the importance of communication, people skills, and leadership abilities of engineering undergraduates. While colleges and universities try to improve the qualities of their graduates, there is much to do for the industry as well. To explore the role and the involvement of the industry in leadership development, eleven industry experts were interviewed. The results show that the industry experts see a lack of cooperation between the industry and engineering educators, real life examples/experiences were values much by the experts in the development of leadership skills. The industry experts agreed that there needs to be more involvement from the industry either self-initiated or initiated by engineering educators. A discussion of these issues and suggestions for improvement are also provided.
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