Integrating business skills in engineering education : Enhancing learning using a CDIO approach

University degrees, such as engineering, that focus on professional competences are becoming increasingly popular in Sweden. However, there is still a need to not only include but to integrate different interdisciplinary skills in courses and education programs. This paper reports and analyzes a case study of the integration of business skills in two different courses on different study programs and levels. The results show that by shifting the actual foundation of a project course from technology to business development, a high level of engagement are achieved, among the students, to work with technology in a more realistic context. By integrating teaching of different professional skills alongside disciplinary knowledge and by putting disciplinary engineering courses into context, e.g. a business context, the students tend to work more systematically and rigorously both in conceiving, designing and implementing their technical projects. Hence, the situation becomes more similar to a real situation in the industry, where value driven development is a necessity. Additionally, by integrating teaching of such skills into the curriculum of several courses during a engineering program according to the CDIO Approach, a better understanding and a shift in the students' individual choices on project courses towards value driven development can be seen