Awareness and expectation of industrial engineering students on competences required toward Industrial revolution 4.0

Industrial revolution 4.0 has already changed the way industrial engineers work. Several skills needed to support Industrial 4.0 technology, such as data analytics and industrial automation, have been shifting from an optional skill to a minimum required skill. In this paper, the competences required by industry for the future workforce were addressed in a survey for industrial engineering students at Thammasat University. Students were asked to evaluate their current competence levels and to define their expected competence levels of the required skills. The result reveals that the competence levels increase significantly from first-year students to fourth-year students. However, there appear to be gaps between current competence levels of the fourth-year students and industry needs. It is also interesting to note that the expected competence levels from industry needs and from students’ expectation, regardless of enrolled year, is significantly indifferent.