In general, social changes are more rapid than school and university reforms. Such a condition is called an “educational lag” by sociologist Alvin Toffler. In Japan freeters (coined from “free Arbeiter” ) and NEETs (this word is the acronym of : “Not Education, Employment or Training” ) are increasing in recent years. Such young people as freeters and NEETs result from the failure of young people to make a smooth transition from school or university to society. Therefore, assisting this smooth transition to society is a very important issue for Japanese schools & universities. Promoting fruitful “career education” is necessary in Japan. In this paper, I define “career” as “a way of life based on one’ s vocational life. ” Also, it “includes three integrated components : ” vocational, educational and life careers. These three are related to each other. In this sense, today’ s “career” concept is much broader than it was in former times. In conclusion in this paper, it is emphasized that at the core of university or college education, that is, the curriculum for education in contemporary Japan must be career education which includes the elements of vocational, educational and life careers.

View full abstract

Every citizen with the high education and the high will to work is the source of the strength of Japanese economy and industry. While global competition intensifies, human resource development is an issue important for Japan. The industry-academia cooperation towards strengthening of human resource development will be more important. The industrial world supports university challenges for the reform, such as strengthening of career education or practical education, and internationalization of a university.

View full abstract

Present situations and problems of a career education in Colleges of Technology (KOSEN) , which were founded in almost fifty years ago by a strong support and demand from industry, are discussed in this article. Education programs in KOSEN have been designed aiming to foster creative and practical engineers and keeping close relationships with needs of industry. Consequently, essences of the career education have actually involved in the education programs with continuing improvements. Recently, KOSEN has been attaching special importance to engineering design educations. And as for Co-op educations, very active and excellent promotions have done in many KOSEN. Also, participations of KOSEN students to internship have been very good and they could have very important experiences.

View full abstract

New education program to train graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who can be good leaders in a variety of social fields by cooperation of graduate school of engineering and pharmaceutical sciences is conducted as an advanced activity in Kyoto University. This program consists of four sub-programs and the educational effect by the collaboration of industry-government-academic and the interaction between dissimilar research fields is described in this paper. Trainees in this program acquire the ability to understand objectively one’ s research from comprehensive point of view and to debate with researchers in different fields. This program supports them to become ‘Global Leaders’ who play an important role internationally in advanced technology.

View full abstract

Special Advanced Course for Core Sciences has been introduced recently to Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University, to bring up a project leader. The following points are key education goals in this program : (1) knowledge of core sciences, (2) communication ability by using English, and (3) wide viewpoints for researches. In order to accomplish these goals, several lectures for core sciences, patent systems and engineering ethics as well as long term internships by the collaboration with some regional companies have been put in practice. In this paper, we describe the outline of the program, educational effects, and our experiences. Then, we discuss how effective the program is for bringing up an engineer or a scientist who can lead sciences and technologies of their domains. This paper also describes current activities of the program.

View full abstract

A new engineering education program consisting of the following main components have been developed in Faculty of Engineering, Okayama University of Science : 1) development of a curriculum, including courses from liberal to engineering fields, with the aim to enhance the engineering career education ; 2) creation of a data base including prominent specialists from different engineering areas to help improving the educational process ; 3) establishing of a portfolio system allowing students to set up their career education goals, plan the curriculum, and check and revise the achieved results. The abilities boosted by the program are well defined and are used in the students’ assessment. The program is financially supported by MEXT and it is expected that it will greatly improve the motivation and the proficiency of the students.

View full abstract

Kanazawa Technical College (KTC) was established to train beginner engineering students in 1962. Since then, KTC offers a unique education/hands on, and has maintained a 100% employment rate upon graduation. In the fourth grade, students participate in a unique industrial internship program for two weeks during summer vacation. As a result, students’ overall satisfaction rate concerning their education is high. Therefore, instead of offering traditional courses that value the experience of the present, it is necessary to offer a new course that lets student discover for themselves what their future will be like. In this paper, an outline of the career design education executed by the students together with their parent (s) /guardian, the school and industry is described.

View full abstract

We trained business ability of the students through the senior instructing younger student system by fourth year students in the class of the practical skill. The theme of the practical skill is the resolution and the assembling of the gasoline engine, the automatic control of the radio control car with the PLC, the learning of dynamics using Mini-Yonku and the operation of the laser cutter. For the fourth students, we can expect an effect of their ability in the future work. For the first students, we can expect an effect for them to be interested in mechanical engineering. Concerning the effects of this project, all the fourth students and teachers discussed, and the effect of the project was evaluated by a poster session. As a result, we have found that more effects than we had expected has been gained.

View full abstract

An education program to bring up engineering design capabilities through long-term internship by the collaboration with regional companies has been put in practice for five years. The program is composed of two types of long-term internships and several lectures for patent systems and engineering ethics. This paper describes the outline of the program, educational effects, and our experiences. The program was improved into two educational programs in 2011. The one is a special course to educate engineers and scientists who can lead the technologies of their domains. The other is a long-term internship program for master students in engineering divisions of graduate school. This paper also describes the current activities of the latter program.

View full abstract