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Higher engineering institutions strive towards educating globally competent students, and this article examines curricular approaches to global competence education. Based on qualitative interviews, it explores engineering educators' perspectives on student preparedness, their experiences with global competence integration, and their attributions of responsibility for such learning. In its findings, the article highlights educators' doubts about engineering graduates' preparedness for global workplaces. Moreover, it retraces a variety of educators' approaches to integrating global competence learning and highlights the challenges they face in this endeavour. The article further shows how engineering educators perceived global competence education as important and acknowledged their own role in supporting it, but attributed the main responsibility for ensuring students' competence development to institutional management. The article concludes with a discussion on the potential consequences of the educators' perceptions and examines possibilities for a strategic institutional approach to global competence education. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Furniture production is a complex process, requiring manufacturers to possess the knowledge and skills needed for effective production and process management. In Taiwan, most schools are unable to provide hands-on training for students to acquire furniture production skills due to limited space and facilities. To address this issue, the present study employed a VR CAVE system for task allocation and furniture production simulation. The training was conducted in groups to strengthen students’ understanding of furniture production and process management. This study recruited 40 freshmen majoring in furniture design to participate in the training. They were divided into two groups: an experimental group (20 students receiving VR CAVE training) and a control group (20 students receiving traditional training). The training covered various aspects, including personnel, equipment, and production line operations aligned with the furniture production process. The effectiveness of this training was evaluated through a combination of tests and observations. The results revealed that students who underwent VR CAVE training and actively engaged in furniture production within a collaborative, task-oriented environment showed significant improvements in their knowledge of furniture production and process management. This innovative approach could effectively address the teaching challenges encountered by traditional furniture vocational schools. © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Enhancing graduate employability is a growing priority in higher education, yet how to conceptualise and assess it remains contested. This study identifies key limitations in employability assessment within the discipline of engineering based on a systematic review of 26 existing measurement instruments. Six critical insights for developing robust measures are identified: 1) conceptual clarity and consensus, 2) discipline (and sub-discipline) specificity, 3) holistic developmental foci, 4) translational rigour in operational definitions, 5) rigorous empirical validation, and 6) robust and apposite reporting mechanisms. Building on these insights, we recommend that employability measurement in engineering shift from short-term industry alignment toward future-oriented approaches that prioritise adaptability and long-term value for graduates, employers, and society. Additionally, higher education institutions should adopt comprehensive, validated frameworks and foster collaboration across academia, industry, and policymakers to improve employability measurement in engineering education. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Primary school students studying in rural areas in Türkiye are among the disadvantaged groups in the context of the principle of equality of opportunity in education. It is thought that providing STEM education to these students plays an important role in providing them with twenty first century skills that are necessary for the age. However, there are not enough studies in the literature on the effectiveness of STEM education for rural students. In this context this research aims to reveal the effect of STEM activities designed according to the 5E learning model by integrating the cooperative learning model in the context of social learning theory on the twenty-first century skills of rural primary school students. The 5E learning model provides a guide for preparing lesson plans in line with the STEM approach because it emphasizes problem-solving skills, is suitable for engineering design processes, and allows the information presented in the course to be associated with daily life. The study was designed according to the time series design. In time series design, more than two measurements are made to determine the change that occurs as a result of the experimental process. According to the measurement data obtained, the direction of the change that occurs in the experimental process is tried to be determined. The study group of the research consists of 19 primary school students studying in a rural school. The "twenty first Century Renewal and Learning Skills" scale was used as a data collection tool. Repeated measures Anova test was used to analyze the research data. As a result of the research, it was concluded that STEM activities had a significant positive effect on the twenty first century skills of rural primary school students. In line with the findings obtained as a result of the research, it can be stated that STEM activities can be effective in developing twenty first century skills of students in rural areas. The important limitation of the study is the use of a one- group experimental design. It is recommended to conduct experimental studies in which the control group is included in future research. © 2025 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.