The Experiences of Engineering Students About the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Development: A Case in Gauteng Province

Abstract

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has become the subject of much debate by scholars, different stakeholders, and politicians. The 4IR is an era where people are using smart, connected, and converged cyber, physical, and biological systems and smart business models to define and reshape the social, economic, and political spheres. South African educational institutions have difficulties, such as low levels of reading and writing proficiency, weak levels of logic and reasoning, and insufficient utilisation of technological resources. Due to the lack of an adequate supply of advanced engineering talent, South Africans would have to wait a long time before they can reap the benefits of innovation-led development. Beyond that, the skills need to be developed by people in regular jobs to deal with the disruptive effects of new technologies in their work environments. The 4IR requires certain skills that are not the same as the skills that were required in the 3IR. Thus, the 4IR continues to be desired by the majority of South Africans, especially engineering students, but this revolution is still challenging. In order to find a solution to the professional skills gap caused by the apparent disequilibrium and insufficiency of the South African educational system's skills, the aim of this paper is to investigate the experiences of engineering students about the Fourth Industrial Revolution and development. In order to determine if engineering education would continue to be offered at South African institutions of higher education in the 4IR age, this paper employs qualitative methods to identify an interpretive paradigm.