FINDING THE GAPS: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NETWORK FOR GRADUATE ATTRIBUTE PROFESSIONALS
Abstract – To help fulfill the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board’s new requirements, many institutions are creating positions focused on graduate attributes and the continual improvement process (GACIP). Due to the very recent development of this role, people hired as graduate attribute professionals (GAPs) have no established community in which to network and develop. In addition, the very nature of these positions is not well defined. This paper describes the development of the Graduate Attribute Professional Network, an informal community of people whose jobs are focused on GACIP, and the results of a survey conducted with its members. GAPs are found to generally be highly educated people, usually with an engineering background, many of whom have experience as educators. They tend to be new to their roles, to be spending 50% or less of full-time hours on GACIP-related duties, and to be involved in every aspect of graduate attribute assessment and the continual improvement process. GAPNet is an important resource to support these individuals who are so involved in engineering education and accreditation in Canada.