@inproceedings{CalleaJohnMatriscianoetal., author = {Callea, Viviana and John, Isabel and Matrisciano, Apollonia and Ursache, Mihai}, title = {Coaching and Engineering Synergy for Effective Vocational Tools: The COACH_ING Model}, series = {2025 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)}, booktitle = {2025 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)}, publisher = {IEEE}, isbn = {979-8-3315-3949-8}, issn = {2165-9567}, doi = {10.1109/EDUCON62633.2025.11016626}, abstract = {Today, more than ever, in a market oriented towards sustainability, inclusion, and new technologies, it is necessary to integrate educational and guidance systems with tools that enable future professionals to choose their career path and later contribute to the collective good. To foster good career choices for engineers we have developed the COACH_ING model presented in earlier papers. In this paper we want to present a project and an experiment, conducted at an engineering faculty of a European university as part of a country wide Guidance and Tutoring Project. In our COACH_ING model, used by the faculty and professional associations for over seven years, new tools have been implemented for conscious career choice guidance and the enhancement of one's professional potential, via future-oriented educational concepts. The activities took place in structured workshops during which, assessments and questionnaires were systematically administered to gather useful research data and monitor the development of reference skills drawn from coaching and engineering. Specifically, the tool DIRECTING, presented at the EFEA2021, now called DIRECTINGVer2, has been enriched, as a questionnaire, with new elements based on empirical validations performed in the meantime. The collected data provided new insights into the level of learning of specific reference parameters related to the COACH_ING model intersecting Dublin Descriptors as a broadly known framework for qualification in degree programs. In the individual interventions, classroom techniques specific to new guidance models were respected, with the aim of developing an open mindset in students, through conditions initially defined based on the mastery of 16 skills and 8 MCs (Macro Capabilities) of the COACH_ING model. During our not-traditional lab, data emerged regarding eight MCs and four clusters of the questionnaire. Participants were involved in group work to bring out their knowledge and potential (as presented at ICL2024). Through focus groups and 1-to-1 sessions, we verified the actual level of confidence and acquisition of knowledge related to both the MCs and the dimensions identified in the Clusters: communication, teamwork, goal and project, relationship. The model finds its foundations in coaching process engineering, building a life project and choosing one's personalized future path. There emerges a strong need to focus on the advancement of engineering education and the concepts to be conveyed to future engineers so that they can act for their own benefit and that of the surrounding world, making conscious choices.}, language = {en} }