Based on the EESF Embedding Sustainability Competences Research Report (2025)
Ask a European engineering graduate what they studied and they'll list an impressive array of technical subjects. Ask the employer who hired them what they wish the graduate had learned, and a rather different list tends to emerge. The gap between those two lists is the focus of one of the more revealing threads in the EESF project's research, and it's a gap that matters, because the people filling it in the short term are the employers themselves, through expensive on-the-job training.
What graduates arrive with
The research found that European engineering programmes are, on the whole, producing students with solid technical foundations. Graduates leave university understanding core engineering principles, able to use mathematical tools, digital modelling software, and field-specific competencies. Depending on their discipline, they may have been taught energy performance calculations, life cycle costing of building materials, or strategies to reduce the environmental footprint of a project.
Non-technical skills are also present, at least to some degree. Teamwork, communication, stakeholder engagement, leadership, and project management all featured in descriptions of what engineering programmes try to develop. Creativity, essential for generating engineering solutions to sustainability problems, was repeatedly flagged as something universities actively cultivate.
And the research found that passion and ambition about sustainability issues, while not formally taught, are often present among graduates as values they've absorbed during their studies.
So far, so good. Where do industry employers think it falls short?
What industry says is missing
Industry representatives interviewed for the research were direct. Their biggest concern: graduates have strong theoretical knowledge but often lack the experience of applying it to real-world situations.
One interviewee put it this way: rather than being able to provide experience to graduates who already have the fundamentals, they find themselves doing substantial training just to establish the basic concepts needed to handle technical work. That's a serious statement. It suggests employers aren't just looking for polish, they're filling foundational gaps.
Several specific shortfalls emerged:
Regulation and compliance knowledge is often superficial. Engineers tend to focus heavily on the technical aspects of regulations, but struggle with the bureaucratic side, understanding the difference between regulations and directives, navigating the planning system, or interpreting the legal requirements of an engineering project. These aren't optional extras; they're daily realities in sustainability-focused engineering work.
Soft skills need sharpening. Employers singled out the ability to express ideas succinctly and clearly, particularly to translate complex engineering principles into simple terms for non-technical audiences. Given that sustainability projects almost always involve stakeholder engagement with policymakers, communities, clients, and investors, this is a substantial gap.
Practical application lags theoretical understanding. Students may know what life-cycle assessment is, but have never actually done one on a live project. They may have studied carbon accounting but not calculated the footprint of an actual design. The leap from understanding to doing is where industry is picking up the slack.
What the ideal graduate looks like
When asked what they'd want in a perfect hire, industry representatives described someone who combines several things:
Strong knowledge of engineering fundamentals, backed by genuine practical training. A working understanding of sustainability and the legislation surrounding it, not expert-level, but enough to engage intelligently. An ability to incorporate sustainability into engineering designs and to use technical skills on sustainability problems. Communication, problem-solving, and leadership capability. And, less tangible but repeatedly mentioned, passion and dedication. Salaries in sustainable industries are often lower than in other engineering fields, so employers look for people motivated by more than pay.
Technical skills that industry particularly values include waste management, eco-design, energy efficiency integration, and circular economy principles, alongside tools like LCA, GRI reporting, and increasingly AI and digital modelling applied to sustainability challenges.
What industry recommends HEIs do
The interviewees didn't just complain. They offered a set of practical recommendations that align remarkably well with findings from academic research in the field:
Integrate sustainable development across engineering disciplines at an institutional level. Don't treat it as an optional module. Build it into how engineering is taught, everywhere.
Shift educators' mindsets to prioritise sustainability alongside technical skills. This is a cultural challenge as much as a curricular one. Faculty need to see sustainability as core, not additional.
Balance foundational concepts with practical, industry-relevant skills through genuine collaboration between HEIs and industry partners. Let industry help redesign programmes. Let students work on live projects. Create co-op placements with specific sustainability focus.
Expand project-based learning, especially for communication skills and exposure to diverse perspectives. Students who've defended a technical decision in front of a sceptical stakeholder will enter the workforce better prepared than those who've only written coursework.
Provide careers guidance on sustainability-focused employers and roles, and establish mentorship programmes between students and alumni working in sustainability. This helps students see clear pathways and connects them with people who've walked them.
Use conferences and seminars to keep students engaged with live sustainability debates beyond the classroom.
The longer-term fix
One of the more forward-looking recommendations in the research calls for longitudinal studies that track graduates' career progression and their actual contributions to sustainability in their professional roles. It's easy to tick a curriculum box and declare sustainability "embedded". It's harder to know whether graduates are still using what they learned five years in, and whether their work is genuinely making a difference.
That kind of tracking would close a feedback loop that currently barely exists, and would tell universities what's actually working versus what just looks good in an accreditation document.
Closing the gap
The skills gap between what European engineering programmes produce and what industry needs isn't vast, but it's real. Graduates emerge with good foundations and often with genuine enthusiasm for sustainability. What they frequently lack is the applied experience, the communication polish, and the regulatory fluency that turns that foundation into immediate industry value.
The encouraging news is that closing this gap doesn't require reinventing engineering education. It requires deepening the partnerships between HEIs and industry, making sustainability a consistent thread through programmes rather than an occasional topic, and giving students real opportunities to apply theoretical knowledge to practical problems before they graduate.
None of that is easy. All of it is possible.
The full Research Report is available at www.eesfproject.eu.