Abstract
Affecting holistic development of the early engineer practitioner is a topic of concern emanating from the Academy, the workplace and engineering organizations alike. For example, concerns over gaps in ethics competency, communication abilities, and team management have been documented. The gap between the rapidly growing body of knowledge in the engineering profession and the effectiveness of early engineering practice does exist. This means that while early career engineers generally know enough about engineering sciences, they are lacking in the ability to connect that information to effective engineering practice in the workplace. The shortfall in the holistic development of the early career engineer, therefore, is based in the problematic technical-behavioral relationship expressed in differences in engineering knowledge versus workplace practice. This problem has been recognized by many organizations such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (V2030), the National Academy of Engineering (Grand Challenges for Engineering; Engineer of 2020; Educating the Engineer of 2020; and Changing the Conversation), the Royal Academy of Engineers, and the National Science Foundation/University of Michigan (5XME Project).