Forum Engineering Inc. (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director, President and Chief Executive Officer: Tsutomu Sato; hereinafter "the Company") has produced a promotional video to convey the appeal of its Engineering Career Seminars, which the Company has been conducting at science and engineering universities throughout Japan, to a wider audience.
Promotional Video of Engineering Career Seminars
Engineering Career Seminars are a unique initiative launched by the Company in 2015. The seminars are held at science and engineering universities across Japan, with a particular focus on mechanical and electrical engineering departments. At the seminars, former engineers with real-world corporate experience serve as instructors, providing concrete examples of how specialized professional knowledge can be applied in society, incorporating frontline perspectives that are difficult to gain from university lectures alone. By demonstrating how university studies connect to real-world practical work from perspectives that are different from those of university professors, who tend to focus more on education and research as scholars, the seminars help students to realize the significance of their studies and provide opportunities for them to envision their future careers. Nearly 80% of the seminars are offered as part of course credit programs, and are highly regarded by many universities with mechanical and electrical engineering departments.
In producing the promotional video, the Company received cooperation from Professor Norihisa Miki of the Faculty of Science and Technology at Keio University and Professor Kiyoshi Dowaki of the Faculty of Science and Technology at Tokyo University of Science, who shared comments on their expectations for the seminars and their educational significance.
According to estimates by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), a severe shortage of researchers and engineers is expected across many industries by 2040. In particular, there is a risk of a shortage of approximately 3.4 million people in cutting-edge fields such as AI and robotics. It is predicted that there will be a shortage of over 1.2 million science and engineering professionals overall, a situation that is sometimes referred to as the "2040 Engineer Shortage Problem."
Through these seminars, the Company is working to address these societal challenges from an educational perspective and contribute to their resolution. Going forward, the Company will continue to expand these seminars and improve their quality to support a future in which science and engineering students can apply the specialized knowledge they have cultivated at university and thrive as engineers in the real world.