Analyzing Core Competencies and Correlation Paths of Emerging Engineering Talent in the Construction Industry—An Integrated ISM–MICMAC Approach

Abstract

The structure of core competencies is the key to constructing the “Chinese Standards” of engineering education and cultivating quality emerging engineering talent. This article synthesized the research results of existing theoretical analyses and educational practices. In total, 11 core competencies of emerging engineering talent were extracted via a literature review and the Delphi method, of which the hierarchical relationships and correlation paths between the core competencies of emerging engineering talent were determined via the use of Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) and Matrice d’ Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliqués à un Classement (MICMAC), where corresponding improvement strategies were eventually proposed. It was found that professional knowledge and engineering thinking, as independent factors, have the greatest impact on the core competencies of emerging engineering talent. Taking the lead in cultivating the core competencies, which are dependence factors, including entrepreneurial ability, lifelong learning ability, professional ethics, patriotism and collectivism, and intercultural competence, is more conducive to improving the quality of emerging engineering talent, enabling the cultivation of high-quality composite talent with strong engineering practical abilities, innovation abilities, and international competitiveness. The hierarchical relationships and correlation paths determined in this study provide theoretical support for developing scientific objectives for emerging engineering talent training, carrying out educational practice, and reducing the difficulty in application practices. The results of this research support the viewpoint that “professional foundation and practical ability” should be stressed. Limited by the disciplinary backgrounds of the authors, the compatibility between the core competencies’ framework of emerging engineering talent proposed in this article based on the construction industry and other industries still needs to be further explored.

1. Introduction

“Welcome to Intelligent Manufacturing!” is being loudly announced at the current moment. Since the start of the 21st century, a new round of scientific and industrial revolution has evolved, with digitalization, networking, and intelligence at its core. In this context, emerging engineering talents with greater adaptability are urgently needed [1]. At the same time, the fourth industrial revolution has not only brought about innovation in terms of engineering education models, but has also led to more complex and comprehensive engineering problems in real life [2], requiring that engineering talent cultivated by colleges and universities should meet the requirements of social development. In order to better respond to this changing trend, it is necessary to adapt to the call of the times and reconstruct the training models used in engineering with the help of the new industrial revolution [3]. Furthermore, the cultivation of core competencies is a positive response to the training requirements of emerging engineering talent. From a horizontal point of view, core competencies mainly refer to an individual’s ability to use knowledge and skills; from the vertical point of view, core competencies run through the whole process of individual growth and development, in which the nature of the individual will change with the relative situation. The penetration of core competencies into the cultivation of emerging engineering talent is not only a positive response to the “Formulation of diversified higher education talent cultivation quality standards that keep up with the development of the times” proposed in “China’s Education Modernization 2035”, but also helps the trainees better cope with uncertain future risks and improve the core competitiveness of employment in the future [4], which will soon be regarded as an inevitable choice that universities must make in terms of engineering education in future strategic plans concerning education in China. The cultivation of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent will be an important breakthrough in terms of improving the effectiveness of talent being cultivated in colleges and universities [5] and is conducive to accelerating the historic transformation of China from a nation of large-scale engineering education to a leading country in terms of engineering education. Therefore, researching the core competencies of emerging engineering talent is a critical task that is urgent and will have an overall impact [6].

In order to seize the opportunities present in this new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, we need emerging engineering talent. Moreover, engineering education is facing a great dilemma in terms of personnel training because the students trained via traditional engineering education have been unable to meet the needs of social development. Based on this, various countries have started to study “core competencies” to find the directions and methods to solve the problem in order to better prepare the trained talent for real-world requirements, future needs, and modernization. The proposal of emerging engineering education in China provides a new way to better carry out engineering education, which points out that in order to further effectively implement the national engineering education development strategy and improve the training quality of emerging engineering talent, the core competencies of emerging engineering talent must be deeply shaped so that they have the necessary qualities and key abilities to meet the needs of social development and achieve their own comprehensive and sustainable development by actively cultivating and practicing core socialist values. Under the guidance of this policy, many domestic scholars have carried out corresponding theoretical and practical research on the core competencies of emerging engineering talent. According to the current research results, scholars have focused on the concept of connotation, element composition, and the educational practice of core competencies by using questionnaire surveys [1,2,6,7], AHP [8], etc. They have determined some core competencies of emerging engineering talent, evaluated the effect of educational practice by analyzing the current situation of training, and formed some practice cases for the cultivation of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent. However, the framework of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent and the correlation paths between the core competencies were not yet clear. In addition, most scholars explored the frame composition of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, mostly relying on the “Core Competencies for the Development of Chinese Students” issued in 2016, which failed to formulate a training plan for cultivating the core competencies of emerging engineering talent in combination with the needs of society and industry in a new era. This makes it impossible to verify whether the obtained framework is scientific and whether it can truly improve the quality and effectiveness of cultivating emerging engineering talent. Finally, studies focusing on the core competencies of emerging engineering talent remain superficial and not in depth, and further exploration is urgently needed. This study is a positive response to this practical problem.

The construction Industry has been regarded as one of the most important national economic growth indexes [9] and is characterized by its large size, large number of practitioners, and wide scope. With the developments in modernization, industrialization, informatization, and intelligentization in the construction industry, concepts such as green building, intelligent buildings, and smart cities continue to emerge [10]. New technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM), Artificial Intelligence (AI), big data, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are being used more and more widely, creating unprecedented challenges and opportunities in the field of construction [11]; therefore, the construction industry urgently requires digital transformation and upgrading. In the context of the transformation and upgrading of the construction industry, the new format proposed for the construction industry puts forward new requirements in terms of professional knowledge structures, innovative practices, and the teamwork abilities of traditional engineering talent [12], and it is imperative to cultivate emerging engineering talent. In addition, with the promotion of The Belt and Road initiative, new technologies, new materials, and new processes are being applied more frequently in many large-scale and highly technological projects; therefore, the demand for high-quality emerging engineering talent is also increasing [13]. Thus, in order to seize the “new highlands” of the international markets and cope with more fierce competition, China urgently needs to cultivate a team of compound engineering talent with the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, which is in keeping with the requirements of the national development strategy and new economy development, guided by meeting market and social needs in the future and aiming to promote the sustainable development of the industry [14].

The purpose of this paper is to refine a framework concerning the competencies of emerging engineering talent and determine the hierarchy and correlation paths between these core competencies. To address this problem, on the basis of combining the actual needs of the country and the characteristics of the construction industry, the authors of this paper combined literature analysis and the Delphi method to extract the core competencies of emerging engineering talent with high recognition from the existing research results. Then, the authors constructed the clear interpretive structural modeling (ISM) of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent to obtain the deep conduction paths between them. Matrice d’ Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliqués à un Classement (MICMAC) was used to verify the rationality of the classification of core competencies levels, calculate the driving force and dependency of each core competencies, and draw the “driving power-dependence power” quadrant diagram of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent. The correlation and classification relationship between the core competencies of emerging engineering talent were determined via an Integrated ISM-MICMAC approach. Finally, based on the research results, targeted strategies were proposed to provide decision-making and theoretical references for the cultivation of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent and the evaluation of talent cultivation effects.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Core Competencies

In the context of globalization and informatization, improving civic literacy has become a common goal of all countries. Therefore, major countries and international organizations around the world have conducted research on and explorations of the core competencies, mainly focusing on the conceptual connotation, framework, and educational practices of core competencies.

2.1.1. The Conceptual Connotation of Core Competencies

As early as 1974, Mertens first proposed the concept of crucial abilities from the perspective of vocational education. He believed that knowledge, capacities, and skills that were not directly related to specific professional skills were actually related to the ability to make judgments and choices in various situations and cope with unforeseen change in career [15]. Indeed, the research project “Definition and Selection of Competencies: Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations” (DeSeCo) carried out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from 1997 to 2005 was the first research recognized by contemporary academic circles to systematically explore the concept and related theories of core competencies. The project defined core competencies as the set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for self-realization, lifelong development, integration into mainstream society, and full employment, which are transferable and serve various functions [16]. In 2004, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) published “Developing Key Competencies in Education: Some Lessons from International and National Experience” as an important outcome of its participation in the DeSeCo project, which pointed out that core competencies were the literacy needed to enable individuals to live the life they want and to keep society functioning [17]. In 2005, the European Commission published “Key Competences for Lifelong Learning: A European Reference Framework”, which, based on the connotation of “competence”, pointed out that “key competences” referred to the literacy required for self-realization, social integration, and employment in a knowledge-based society [18]. The European Union defined core competencies as the qualities that young people should have before the end of compulsory education. These qualities enable them to live a good grown-up life, laid the basis for their lifelong learning, and could be continuously developed, maintained, and innovated throughout their entire career, so as to comprehensively enhance their core competitiveness [19]. The definition of core competencies in the United States mainly refers to the abilities that all students or workers must have. Its purpose was to cultivate people who met the requirements of job skills and core competencies in the 21st century, ensuring that the skills students learned from school could fully meet the needs of further study or social employment and ultimately become competent social citizens, employees, and leaders [20].

In the beginning, China’s research on core competencies mainly introduced and learned from the research results and experiences of different countries and international organizations. For example, in 2013, Zhang (2013) [21] introduced the OECD’s DeSeCo project, elaborated on the background, development venation, research content, and organizational procedures for defining and selecting the core competencies of the project, and proposed that the research on core competencies could be conducted from the functional perspective to consider both social and personal development visions. After that, Chinese scholars gave their own understanding of the connotation of core competencies from different perspectives by referring to foreign research results. The mainstream viewpoints of the academic circle were roughly as follows: One viewpoint thought that core competencies were “key and minority” “advanced competencies”, which were different from basic literacy, professional literacy, and comprehensive literacy [22]. Core competencies were considered to be the advanced ability and humanized ability to solve complex problems and adapt to unknown situations in order to meet the needs of the information age and knowledge society [23] and are the “competency or competitiveness” needed to respond to various challenges [24]. Specifically for students, core competencies were considered “the essential qualities and key abilities that students should possess to adapt to the needs of personal lifelong development and social development” [25]. Therefore, the core competencies were the key competencies that people should have in the 21st century, and the primary goal of education is to cultivate core competencies; holders of the second view argued that core competencies were a taxonomical concept [26], which is a synthesis of knowledge, skills, and attitudes and have the characteristics of interdisciplinary [27]. They were similar to core qualities and comprehensive qualities; their essence was to define the image of talent in the new era from the perspective of learning results, so as to develop the standards of talent cultivation. At the same time, relevant scholars have also emphasized that core competencies, as the inherent comprehensive qualities that are gradually formed in the process of one’s growth and play a decisive role in self-realization and social development [28], have a strong stage, era, and developmental nature, pointing toward the process rather than the result and were a process of dynamic development that can be taught and learned. Different core competencies should be cultivated and developed through education in the corresponding school period (or life stage) [29]; the last one is that promoting students’ all-round development was also a connotation of core competencies. Scholars believe that the development of core competencies should adopt a Marxist position in terms of encouraging the full development of humans as a basic springboard and foothold [30], incorporating the core competencies into quality-oriented education [27,31] and ensuring that moral education was the essence of connotation construction of core competencies and the essence of education [32]. Based on China’s basic national conditions and realistic situations, core competencies such as ideology, morality, mode of thinking, sensibility, and life values should be shaped [33], with the aim of promoting the all-round development of students via the sustainable cultivation of their core competencies [34].

2.1.2. The Framework of Core Competencies

The DeSeCo project, launched by the OECD in 1997, was the first to establish a universal basic framework for core competencies in an interdisciplinary context. Based on the internal logic of humans and tools, humans and society, and humans and self. It proposed nine qualities in three dimensions, including “use tools interactively”, “interact in heterogeneous groups”, and “act autonomously”, and emphasized the important role of core competencies in students’ development, leading the world’s research on core competencies [35]. Afterward, the OECD kept pace with the times and actively carried out follow-up studies on core competencies based on social changes. In the annual reports of 2009 and 2013, it pointed out the new requirements of information technology on the development of personal literacy, and in the annual reports of 2013 and 2015, it emphasized that students should develop various qualities commensurate with the needs of the labor markets, which further enriched the framework of core competencies. In 2004, UNESCO published “Developing Key Competencies in Education: Some Lessons from International and National Experience” as an important achievement of participating in the DeSeCo project, which put forward five pillars for lifelong learning: learning to seek knowledge, learning to do things, learning to coexist, learning to develop, and learning to change, which are also “the essential basic qualities of citizens in the 21st century” [17,36]. On the basis of absorbing the achievements of the DeSeCo project of OECD, according to the needs of the characteristic development of European education and the background of the knowledge economy, the European Union (EU) proposed the goal of building a core competence system in the context of talent centered on “competence” [37] and published “Key Competences for Lifelong Learning: A European Reference Framework” in 2005. It defined eight core competencies: communication in the mother tongue, communication in foreign languages, mathematical competence and basic competencies in science and technology, digital competence, learning to learn, social and civic competencies, sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, and cultural awareness and expression [38]. In 2018, the EU issued the Council Recommendation of 22 May 2018 on Key Competencies for Lifelong Learning, which revised the expression of core competencies proposed three years ago and provided a clear framework system of core competencies for education and training throughout the EU.

At the same time, many countries and individuals have also conducted research on the framework of core competencies. In 2002, the United States established the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21), which began to systematically study the literacy that could enable students to adapt to the occupational demands of future society and successfully build a complete 21st-century learning system, that is, the core competencies’ framework of the United States in the 21st century. The framework mainly put forward 11 items in relation to knowledge, skills, and professional intelligence from three aspects: “learning and innovation skills”, “life and career skills”, and “information, media and technology skills”, which are considered necessary for students to adapt to challenges, including creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem-solving ability, and communication and cooperation ability [39]. Based on an analysis of the labor demands in the 21st century, Singapore announced its framework of 21st-century competencies in 2010. The framework consisted of three main levels. Among them, “core values” were at the core position, including respect, integrity, responsibility, and so on. The second level was “social-emotional competencies”, which covers five aspects, such as self-awareness and social awareness. The third level was “21st century competencies for a globalised world”, which covered aspects such as civic literacy and cross-cultural skills. The framework aimed to cultivate confident individuals, proactive learners, active contributors, and enthusiastic citizens that can cope with global changes [40]. In 2013, Japan announced the core competencies’ framework suitable for future education—21st-century competencies, which was organized into three concentric circles composed of “basic abilities, thinking ability, and practical ability”: The core includes basic abilities (language ability, mathematical ability, and information ability), the middle layer includes thinking abilities, and the outermost layer includes practical abilities, forming a higher level of education goals [41]. The Spanish Ministry of Education stipulated that domestic students should possess the following core competencies: language communication, mathematics, understanding and interacting with the material world, information processing and digital literacy, social and civic literacy, cultural and artistic literacy, learning to learn, autonomy, and personal initiative [42]. Fatih (2019) [43] suggested using big data to extract the core competencies required by the industry, focused on cultivating students’ practical ability, development ability, soft ability, business-oriented abilities, and analytical ability to narrow the gap between industry requirements and engineering education goals. Yother et al. (2022) [44] believed that competency-based engineering education should focus on training the soft skills needed for work so that graduates could have six preliminary abilities: leadership, subject matter excellence, communications (verbal and written), teamwork, ethics, and individual resilience.

Research into a core competency framework in China started relatively late, starting from studying, absorbing, and referencing the achievements and experiences on core competencies’ frameworks aboard, and the subject of the studies was mostly students. For example, in 2013, Pei introduced the background, process, and results of research into the framework of core competencies published by the EU [38]. By reviewing the structural framework of students’ core competencies in the European Union and synthesizing China’s national conditions and educational practice, the United States, Japan, and other countries, Xin et al. (2014) [45] constructed a core competencies framework in line with the individual development of Chinese students. With the goal of cultivating well-rounded people, nine core competencies, such as physical (physiological), mental (psychological), intelligence, and personality quality, have been expanded from three aspects of subjectivity, sociality, and culture. On the basis of learning the core competencies framework of the United States, Japan, and Taiwan, Shi proposed to build a core competencies system from the aspects of personal cultivation, social care, and patriotism and collectivism [27]. In 2015, Zhang (2015) [46] wrote an article introducing the representative research results of UNESCO on core competencies and summarized the humanistic concept, lifelong learning perspective, and more attention to disadvantaged groups contained in it. By analyzing and comparing the main viewpoints of UNESCO, OECD, and some international scholars on core competencies, Teng (2016) [47] pointed out that “core competencies in the 21st century” should focus on the relationships between the following sets of concepts: interdisciplinary and professional learning, cognitive and non-cognitive skills, internationalism and indigenization, etc. According to the core competencies proposed by the DeSeCo project and the EU, and in full combination with the research achievements of domestic scholars, such as Li and Zhong (2015) [48], they believed that students’ core competencies could be divided into three levels: “basic knowledge and basic skills”, “basic skills acquired in the process of problem solving”, and “world view and methodology of understanding and transforming the world”, respectively. In light of relevant foreign research results, Peng (2016) [28] divided the core competencies into scientific literacy, physical and mental literacy, information literacy, social skills literacy, and civic literacy in order to respond to the call of lifelong learning and cultivate talent for the 21st century. Zhan (2016) [49] constructed a concentric core competencies model from the inside out that included “five classes”, such as ideology and morality, and “twenty orders”, such as patriotism, which aimed to obtain the core competencies of students from primary school to university. At this stage, the research had laid the foundation for determining the core competencies framework based on China’s national conditions.

Based on the definitions of core competencies provided by different international organizations, countries, and China’s national conditions, the research group focusing on core competencies in China’s Ministry of Education issued the general framework of core competencies for Chinese students in 2016, which was divided into three aspects (culture base, self-directed development cultural foundation, and independent development and social participation), included six qualities (practice and innovation, etc.) and contained 18 main points (social responsibility, etc.). It opened the era of core competencies in Chinese education [25,50]. Chu (2016) [22] emphasized six core competencies: innovation ability, critical thinking, civic literacy, cooperation and communication ability, self-directed development ability, and information literacy contained in the general framework of core competencies for Chinese students. Afterward, based on the above-mentioned framework and combined with the trends of social development, relevant scholars continuously enriched and improved the core competencies framework. Zhou (2016) [51] proposed a hypothesis of “students’ core competencies” based on the analysis of the similarities between Tao Xingzhi’s Three-competency theory and Basic-skill theory and the concept of core competencies and expanded the framework of core competencies into 14 qualities, such as social responsibility, information literacy, and the ability to possess and pursue happiness. Starting from the specific background of the new trends in scientific and technological developments in the 21st century, Zhang and Zhang (2017) [52] discussed the requirements for talent training under new circumstances and emphasized the four qualities of “critical thinking, learning ability, knowledge migration and construction ability, and global competency”. Yan et al. (2018) [53] combined epistemology with psychology and pedagogy to narrate the vertical and horizontal generation logic of the system of classification on educational objective, which was related to core competencies. Three levels of basic knowledge and skills, problem-solving, and disciplinary thinking were used to explain the composition of core competencies. Gan et al. (2020) [54] believed that cultivating students’ innovation literacy was an important goal in the stage of basic education and that innovation literacy should be further decomposed into three elements: innovative personality, innovative thinking, and innovative practice based on the core competencies framework. Based on the development characteristics of the times, Wei et al. (2020) [55] formed a 5C model of the core competencies of the 21st century. Starting from the five first-level dimensions of cultural understanding and inheritance competence, critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration. It was subdivided into 16 secondary dimensions of cultural understanding, cultural identification, and cultural practice and criticism. This provided a Chinese plan for global core competencies education. Huang et al. assumed that innovation literacy was the core competence of innovative talent. Under the framework of core competencies, the three key indicators of innovation literacy, namely problem-solving ability, labor consciousness, and technology application, extracted from international comparisons and academic achievements, are beneficial for cultivating the innovation literacy of primary and secondary school students (2021) [56]. The relevant core competencies’ frameworks are shown in

Table 1. Research status of core competencies’ frameworks.

Research Categorization	Dimension	Core Competencies
DeSeCo Project [35]	Using tools interactively; interacting in heterogeneous groups; acting autonomously.	The ability to use language, symbols and text interactively; the ability to use knowledge and information interactively, etc.
EU [38]	---	The ability to communicate in the mother tongue; the ability to communicate in foreign languages; mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology, etc.
America [39]	Learning and innovation skills; information; media and technology skills; living and vocational skills.	Creativity and innovation; critical thinking and problem solving; information literacy, etc.
Japan [41]	Basic abilities; thinking abilities; practical abilities.	Self-discipline; interpersonal skills; social participation, etc.
Xin [45]	Subjectivity; sociality; cultural nature.	Physical quality; mental health literacy; intelligence, etc.
Shi [27]	---	Personal cultivation; social care; patriotism and collectivism, etc.
Zhang [46]	---	Humanistic concept; lifelong learning perspective; attention to disadvantaged groups, etc.
Teng [47]	Cognitive skills; interpersonal skills; self-competence.	Cognitive strategies; knowledge; creativity; interpersonal skills; cooperative skills; leadership, etc.
Li [48]	---	Disciplinary thinking; problem-solving ability; basic knowledge and basic skills.
Peng [28]	Scientific literacy; physical and mental quality; information literacy; social skills literacy; civic literacy.	Information awareness; information morality; soft skills, etc.
Zhan [49]	Scientific and cultural accomplishment; ideological and moral accomplishment; labor skills accomplishment; aesthetic and artistic accomplishment; physical and mental health accomplishment.	Strong body; healthy psychology; professional skills, etc.
Research group on core competencies [25,50]	Culture base; self-directed development; cultural foundation; independent development; social participation.	Rational thinking; critical thinking; the spirit of exploration, etc.
Chu [22]	---	Innovation ability; critical thinking; information literacy, etc.
Zhou [51]	---	Critical thinking; creativity; scientific literacy, etc.
Zhang [52]	---	Critical thinking; learning ability; knowledge migration and construction ability; global competency.
Yan [53]	Disciplinary thinking; problem-solving ability; basic knowledge and basic skills.	Cognitive competence; emotional capability; cognitive component.
Gan [54]	---	Creative personality; innovative thinking; innovative practice.
Wei [55]	Cultural competence; critical thinking; creativity; communication; collaboration.	Cultural understanding; cultural identification; cultural practice, etc.
Huang [56]	---	Problem-solving ability; labor consciousness; technology application, etc.

.

2.1.3. The Educational Practice of Core Competencies

Nowadays, understanding how to cultivate students’ core competencies has become a major research issue for scholars and it is also a severe challenge faced in current education. From the general tendencies evident in the research, it is mainly divided into three aspects: curriculum reform, teaching modes, and instructional evaluation.

Firstly, in terms of curriculum reform, Liu (2023) [57] and Jiang (2018) [58] considered that we should deepen curriculum reform and foster virtue through education. They also emphasized that curriculum reform could further improve students’ core competencies, enhance their political identity, and cultivate their rational spirit. Taking national English curriculum reform in China as the background, Wang and Luo (2019) [59] discussed the changes in students’ core competencies brought about by the transformation and upgrading of teaching materials and pointed out that the latest versions of teaching materials after curriculum reform were more conducive to cultivating students’ overall language proficiency. At the same time, the response to the policy of China’s curriculum reform not only adapts to international trends in curriculum development but also to China’s indigenous practices and social values. He et al. (2021) [60] and Wei (2019) [61] combined a construction of core competencies with chemistry curriculum reform, used the PCK pentagonal model to contextually measure and verify the teaching content scale of chemical core competencies, and indicated that appropriate reform of cognitive measurement tools could achieve ideal teaching results. Fully drawing on international experiences, Xin et al. (2014) [45] put forward a modern curriculum system where “the system based on core competencies should contain at least four parts: specific teaching objectives, content standards, teaching suggestions and quality standards” by summarizing three modes of combining core competencies and curriculum construction and combining with the curriculum reform and the present condition of construction of students’ core competencies in China. Among them, the cultivation of students’ core competencies was mainly reflected in quality standards and teaching objectives. Yu and Wang (2017) [62] proposed that curriculum reform based on core competencies should take integration as the core, unify and integrate knowledge in different fields and even information between disciplines and life and disciplines and technology, and utilize an integrated learning environment to promote the generation of students’ comprehensive competencies such as knowledge, abilities, and attitudes. Hwang and Kwon (2019) [63] adopted a self-core competence measurement tool, used pre-diagnosis and post-diagnosis, and conducted a questionnaire survey when necessary. The results showed that with this tool, it could be more effective to explore, develop, and provide customized courses according to students’ needs and better improve students’ autonomous participation and core competencies responding to the development needs of curriculum reform. Li (2023) [64] believed that English language teaching was an indispensable part of the current secondary school language education system and it was also a basic ability that every learner should have. In order to achieve the efficient cultivation of middle school students’ core competencies, it was proposed that the middle school English curriculum reform should be established as “core competencies” oriented and that the penetration effect of core competencies should be enhanced via reform.

Secondly, in terms of teaching modes, Xu and Liu (2017) [65] analyzed the ways of cultivating core competencies in Russia, Singapore, and other countries and believed that students’ self-development should be taken as the starting point, and in the teaching process, students should constantly be guided to learn to think and reflect. At the same time, Xu also encouraged students to carry out deep learning and further strengthened the effectiveness of shaping students’ core competencies. Luo (2017) [66] conceived that “deep teaching” was an important way to access core competencies. In this regard, we should attach great importance to the learning process of students, with the aim of stimulating their learning interests, cultivating their active exploring spirit and ability to communicate and cooperate, and consolidate learning outcomes via practice. On the basis of summarizing the practical experiences in the UK, Zhang (2016) [67] believed that teaching based on core competencies should be transformed from traditional education to interdisciplinary, contextualized education and focus on problem solving; furthermore, students should be given a greater deal of autonomy in learning and their input should constitute the main body of learning. According to the cultivation of core competencies, the Suzhou Academy of Education Science put forward “teaching is the creation of teaching situation”, advocating for proposing dilemmas to further promote students’ ability to construct knowledge and solve problems. Liu (2016) [68] believed that core competencies could not only change the starting point of constructing a curriculum system, but also promote the transformation of educational concepts. Pei and Song (2016) [69] suggested that if high-quality teaching results were achieved through classroom teaching relying on core competencies, the core competencies would also be improved. Yu (2017) [70] pointed out that the key to teaching strategies lies in the breakthrough of “comprehension of knowledge”: The three-stage teaching method of “comprehension of knowledge”—“transfer of knowledge”—“innovation of knowledge” was adopted to gradually improve core competencies. Jiang and Wei (2016) [71] believed that the same classroom, different teaching concepts and modes, and training effect on core competencies were very different. In order to improve students’ core competencies, it was necessary to constantly renew educational concepts, change traditional teaching methods, transform a “lecture-based classroom” into an “activity-based classroom”, and consciously undertake the task of cultivating students’ core competencies. Edward et al. (2018) [72], Jin et al. (2023) [73], Han et al. (2023) [74], and Liu et al. (2023) [75] advocated that engineering learning should be implemented in specific engineering projects, using project teaching methods to advance combining professional theory and concrete practice, combining teachers’ teaching and students’ learning. In the teaching process, teachers should play a guiding role, encourage students to think positively, and fully tap their potential capacity via group discussion. In this process, students’ problem-solving and practical abilities could be cultivated. Wang and Zhang (2023) [76] believed that core competencies should be reflected in complex situations as a single knowledge structure could not adapt to complicated demands. In order to address this dilemma, it has been proposed to adopt large unit teaching and form a structured collaborative teaching design, which could constantly open up new ways to build up the core competencies of disciplines and make the traditional curriculum more holistic and innovative.

Thirdly, in terms of instructional evaluation, Jiang and Wei (2018) [58] considered that the existing evaluation method should be changed from “knowledge evaluation” to “knowledge evaluation, emotional evaluation and ideological evaluation”. Emphasis should be placed on improving the dimensions of evaluation elements, adhering to the principle of “student-centered” and taking students’ lifelong development ability as the ultimate goal of evaluation. From the perspective of core competencies, Chen and Tang (2017) [77] proposed that establishing a stepped evaluation system would help to make up for the shortcomings in the current educational evaluation according to the current training status of core competencies. In order to objectively evaluate students’ learning outcomes, Cui (2019) [78] proposed that formative evaluation should be used to continuously monitor students’ learning process, and developmental evaluation should be used to diagnose the problems existing in students’ learning process and put forward suggestions for improvement. At the same time, accurate and timely educational feedback should be given to promote students’ core competencies. Cai (2019) [79] focused on “authentic assessment” and emphasized observing students’ performance in real-life situations to understand their learning effectiveness and provide timely feedback. Chang and Li (2015) [80] believed that it was necessary to develop quality evaluation standards that could continuously improve individual results from knowledge to ability and then to literacy. Tan et al. (2019) [81] utilized big data technology to digitalize abstract and diverse competencies to achieve accurate analysis of the development status of core competencies, which helped to grasp the development status of core competencies and evaluate the training effectiveness of core competencies. Li (2016) [82] pointed out that appropriately evaluating the core competencies of comprehensive practical courses was more conducive to strengthening students’ learning abilities, so it was necessary to integrate diversified evaluation methods to help students better establish reflection and improve their own development. The educational model of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) proposed by Fang et al. (2023) [83] was a results-oriented education concept, wherein educational evaluation was conducted according to students’ output results, emphasizing that students become the main body of learning, which not only aroused students’ learning enthusiasm but also facilitated teachers’ engagement with educational evaluation and arranged courses according to students’ real needs.

2.1.4. Brief Summary of the Literature Review on Core Competencies

Through a literature review, we found that the research on core competencies mainly focused on the conceptual connotation, framework, and educational practice of core competencies. In terms of the conceptual connotation of core competencies, this paper introduced the concept and connotation of core competencies proposed by organizations and countries such as the OECD, the EU, and the United States. By learning from foreign research achievements, China analyzed the connotation of core competencies from three perspectives. In terms of the composition of the framework of core competencies, OECD took the lead in building the basic framework of core competencies, and on this basis, developed regions and countries such as the EU and the United States have also defined their framework of competencies. China has issued “Core Competencies for the Development of Chinese Students” built on the combination of foreign experience and national conditions. In terms of the educational practice of core competencies, this article introduced various practical explorations around the cultivation of core competencies at aspects of some majors and courses implemented by various countries from three aspects: curriculum reform, teaching methods, and educational evaluation, revealing the practical effects of some core competencies’ objectives.

Based on the literature review of core competencies, the paper summarized the basic composition of core competencies from different countries and perspectives, determined the scope of core competencies, and integrated the educational practice of the cultivation of core competencies. Under the combination of theory and practice, a universal framework of core competencies was formed, which provides a research basis for studies on core competencies in various industries. In the next section, this paper will study the core competencies of engineering majors by overviewing the emerging engineering education.

2.2. Emerging Engineering Education

In today’s world, scientific, technological, and industrial transformation are accelerating, and the competition in terms of comprehensive national strength is becoming increasingly fierce. In order to cope with the challenges of the financial crisis and revitalize the real economy, major developed countries have issued forward-looking strategic reports on engineering education reform and actively promoted innovation in engineering education, with the aim of cultivating a large population of engineering talent who could adapt to the needs of the new era, which is in order to continue to maintain their leading position in the world. In the above context, in 2017, China proposed promoting the construction of emerging engineering education, focusing on national strategies and the needs of regional development, exploring the construction of an engineering education system with the characteristics of Chinese features and the world level, and actively planning talent cultivation in strategic and competitive fields in the future. Therefore, many scholars have carried out extensive research and explored the connotation and characteristics of emerging engineering education and the competence structure and training practices of emerging engineering talent.

2.2.1. The Connotation and Characteristics of Emerging Engineering Education

The Fudan Consensus, Tianda Action, and Beijing Guidelines constitute the “trilogy” of emerging engineering education, playing the main melody in terms of talent cultivation and opening up a new path of engineering education reform in China. The above documents clearly pointed out that the construction and development of emerging engineering education should be based on the context of the economy and new industries as the background, and it was necessary to establish the “new concept” in engineering education, which means innovative, comprehensive, and full-cycle education; construct a “new structure” for disciplines and majors, combining emerging engineering and traditional engineering disciplines; explore and implement the “new model” of talent cultivation in engineering education; create “new quality” in terms of engineering education with international competitiveness; and perfect a “new system” of engineering education with Chinese characteristics, so as to achieve the goal of China’ s transition from a major country to a strong country in engineering education (2017) [84]. After that, scholars made further interpretations of the connotation of emerging engineering education. Zhong (2017) [85] believed that emerging engineering education was a kind of reform orientation proposed to meet the new needs of national strategic development, the new situations of international competition, and the new requirements of moral education, which had the characteristics of being strategic, innovative, systematic, and open. And, its connotation was taking moral education as the central task, dealing with change and shaping the future as the core idea, inheritance and innovation, crossover and integration, and coordination and sharing as the main approaches to cultivate future outstanding engineering talent, which were diversified and innovative. Lin (2020) [86] further explained the meaning of “emerging” in “emerging engineering education”, namely, “new-generated”, “new-form”, and “new-style”. Firstly, it referred to an emerging discipline that has emerged from scratch; secondly, it referred to a new discipline that had been upgraded and transformed from traditional engineering; and thirdly, it referred to the emerging disciplines based on interdisciplinary integration. Li et al. (2017) [87] expressed “emerging engineering” as “engineering +”, which meant a new form of traditional engineering that injected new connotations to meet the needs of the current new economic development. Gu (2017) [88] believed that “emerging engineering education” was a comprehensive concept of emerging engineering disciplines or fields, with new paradigms and new engineering educations formed via innovation and advances in science, applied science, engineering science, and engineering practices, which could facilitate the intersection and integration of different disciplines. Emerging engineering education could be understood as a new engineering subject, field, direction being formed or about to be formed, which could be a first-level discipline, sub-discipline, interdisciplinary, or disciplinary direction. Wu et al. (2018) [89] conceived that “emerging engineering” contained the ideas of “student-centered, result-oriented and continuous innovation”. Liu et al. (2019) [90] considered that “emerging engineering education” not only had professional attributes but also reflected disciplinary attributes, which was the intercommunication between majors and subjects. On the whole, the connotation of “emerging engineering education” was abundant, not only reflected in the discipline construction but also covering the reform and development direction of engineering education in many aspects, such as education concepts and teaching practices centered on talent cultivation.

2.2.2. The Core Competencies of Emerging Engineering Talent

The “emerging engineering education” should first answer the question of what kind of people to cultivate. Specifically, it should answer the question of what core competencies emerging engineering talent should possess in the future, so as to clarify the core and the dimensions of quality standards of talent cultivation [4]. The quality training of emerging engineering talent aims to meet the new needs and challenges of future development and train talent who can promote the development of engineering education and advance science and technology in China. From the general trend present in the research, it is mainly divided into three levels: professional literacy, criticism and innovation, and moral education.

Firstly, professional literacy is the essential core competence for various talent and a good professional foundation as a bridge that connects other abilities. Starting from the four dimensions of foundation, ability, literacy, and vision, Wu (2022) [91] constructed the implementation paths to cultivate the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, emphasized the optimization of professional layout and the curriculum module’s construction, and consolidated the foundation of talent cultivation. Sun (2018) [92] believed that the construction of emerging engineering talent, as an important measure for China’s engineering education to cope with the development of new technology and new economy, should constantly enhance students’ abilities in terms of innovative thinking, innovative consciousness, and innovative vision and professional knowledge, so as to cultivate increasingly progressive engineering talent to meet the needs of the times. Long and Shao (2018) [93] considered that with the deep integration of engineering technology’s innovative development and globalization, more attention should be paid to training emerging engineering talent, and the focus should be on cultivating professional qualities such as engineering thinking, cross-border integration, cooperative learning, and internet thinking to promote the construction and development of emerging engineering talent. Zhang (2022) [94] supposed that emerging engineering talent should possess enough labor literacy, excellent professional literacy, and excellent leadership. Based on the three dimensions, Zhang put forward 13 specific performances to further clarify the requirements of knowledge and ability in terms of talent cultivation.

Secondly, the new industrial revolution promotes the development of society in the direction of technicalization and intelligence, making the current structure of knowledge and abilities unable to cope with the uncertainty and complexity of future engineering activities, and continuous criticism and innovation on the basis of professional competencies is required to effectively respond to future changes. Zhang et al. (2020) [95] believed that the goal of emerging engineering education was to cultivate innovative and outstanding engineering talent with sustained competitiveness via new concepts and models. On this basis, a “trinity” application-oriented talent cultivation model was proposed, which included the trinity education subject of “schools, enterprises and research institutions”, “general courses, professional courses and vocational courses”, and the trinity talent cultivation model of “learning, application, and innovation”, so as to cultivate engineering talent with a critical and innovative spirit. Zuo et al. (2022) [96] regarded the cultivation of students’ abilities in terms of active learning and independent thinking as a top priority in engineering education reform and the construction of emerging engineering talent quality and put them in the training plan for engineering talent. When defying core competencies, Jiao fully absorbed the “Core Competencies for Development of Chinese Students” issued by the Ministry of Education in 2016, then combined it with the characteristics of the industry and built a framework of core competencies for emerging engineering talent from the perspective of three dimensions: cultural learning, self-directed developments, and social participation. Emphasis was placed on the positive effects of the cultivation of planning and reflection ability, adaptive capacity, criticizing and querying ability, and innovative ability in improving the quality of emerging engineering talent [7]. Firmly grasping the demands for talent in the new era, Zhong (2017) [97] proposed that “emerging engineering” talent should possess nine core competencies, including innovation and entrepreneurship ability, global vision, and patriotism and collectivism. Innovation and entrepreneurship ability was regarded as the key quality for improving the competence structure of emerging engineering talent. Fei (2017) [98] proposed that attention should be paid to the construction of critical thinking, the self-extend knowledge structure, cross-border thinking and integrating capacity, engineering ethics, professional integrity, etc. He believed that only by continuously catering to the needs of social development and upgrading traditional engineering majors could we better provide intellectual and talent support for developing the new economy and improving international competitiveness in China. Zhang et al. (2022) [8] used the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to identify 20 indicators of emerging engineering talent’s competencies. She extracted and divided them into five dimensions: cultural identity, innovative practice, traits in thinking, vocational ability, and theoretical knowledge. It was found that theoretical knowledge literacy and innovative practice play an important role in the cultivation of qualities of emerging engineering talent. Li (2019) [99] also proposed that future-oriented engineering talent should have “new qualities” such as attention to “transcendental existence”, the ability to establish connections, imagination, sense of space, macro thinking, and critical thinking.

Thirdly, with the acceleration of new industrialization, the international situation and social needs have become complicated and diversified, and the training standards of engineering talent are also constantly improving and updating, which shows a spiral upward trend in overall development. Practice has proven that the quality requirements of emerging engineering talent not only include comprehensive knowledge and skills, but also encourage noble moral character and cultivated morality as fundamental. Only in this way can we cultivate more high-quality engineering talent that satisfy society and achieve the construction goals of emerging engineering education. Wang et al. (2020) [4] considered that emerging engineering talent should have key qualities and core competencies. In terms of key qualities, they were divided into ideology and morality, ideals and beliefs, patriotism and collectivism, and ethics of responsibility, while core competencies were divided into basic ability, professional ability, and engineering ability. Xiang (2017) [100] summarized the talent training standards of emerging engineering talent as six aspects: patriotism and collectivism, sense of social responsibility, and engineering creativity. Zhang (2017) [101] planned a specific path for cultivating emerging engineering talent from the perspectives of educational philosophy, professional structure, talent cultivation mode, etc. He emphasized that constructing a general education system in engineering should take moral cultivation as the orientation and patriotism as the center. Jiang et al. (2018) [102] believed that the training standards of emerging engineering talent should be continuously advanced and their quality structures should be constructed from three aspects: character, knowledge, and intelligence. Only in this way could we better meet the needs of the country. Wu et al. [89] specifically classified nine core competencies necessary for emerging engineering talent from three levels of professional spirit, professional ability, and sustainable development ability, which included patriotism and collectivism, professional ethics, cross-border integration ability, and lifelong learning ability.

The core competencies of emerging engineering talent are not immutable but constantly explored, sublimated, and broken via the limitations of traditional engineering education in the process of catering to social development. They are committed to building a team of high-quality and excellent engineering talent to meet the needs of the development of a new economy and promote the reform of higher engineering education in the future. The competence structures of emerging engineering talent are shown in

Table 2. The competence structures of “emerging engineering education”.

Research Categorization	Competence Structure	Elements
Wu [91]	Foundation; ability; accomplishment; vision.	Knowledge foundation; entrepreneurial competence; cross-border vision, etc.
Sun [92]	---	Innovative thinking; innovative ability; innovative consciousness, etc.
Long [93]	---	Engineering thinking; cooperative learning; lifelong learning ability, etc.
Zhang [94]	Profound labor literacy; excellent professional literacy; excellent leadership.	Interdisciplinary knowledge; cross-cultural communication ability; self-development ability, etc.
Zhang [95]	---	Three “trinity” application-oriented cultivating talent modes, of which the trinity education subject of “schools, enterprises and research institutions”, “general education courses, professional courses and career courses”, and trinity talent cultivation model of “learning, application, and innovation”.
Zuo [96]	---	Body; mind; conduct; active learning; independent thinking; executive power.
Jiao [7]	Cultural learning; social participation; interpersonal skills, etc.	Cultural foundation; scientific literacy; self-management, etc.
Zhong [97]	Learning and teaching; practice and innovation; localization and internationalization.	Innovating teaching methods and technologies; strengthening the innovation and entrepreneurial ability; improving the personnel training mode of personnel training mode, etc.
Fei [98]	---	Critical thinking; engineering ethics and professional integrity, etc.
Zhang [8]	The literacy of cultural identity; the literacy of innovative practice, etc.	Professional knowledge; engineering thinking; critical thinking, etc.
Li [99]	New quality; new structure; new method.	Critical thinking; informal learning, etc.
Wang [4]	Key character; core competencies.	Basic abilities; professional abilities; engineering abilities, etc.
Xiang [100]	Individual development; essential attributes of engineering; social needs; state will.	Patriotism and collectivism; sense of social responsibility; engineering creativity, etc.
Zhang [101]	Educational philosophy; professional structure; talent cultivation mode, etc.	Moral education; professional education; innovation and entrepreneurship education, etc.
Jiang [102]	Character; knowledge; intelligence.	Patriotism; engineering knowledge; scientific knowledge; matter-of-fact attitude; engineering ethics and ecological consciousness, etc.
Wu [89]	Professional spirit; professional ability; competence; sustainable development ability.	Patriotism and collectivism; professional ethics; lifelong learning ability, etc.

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2.2.3. The Educational Practice of Emerging Engineering Talent

The demands of emerging engineering education in the new era essentially require high-quality talent. The most fundamental way of emerging engineering education lies in the cultivation of engineering talent. Only by cultivating excellent engineering talent needed by society can we consolidate and develop emerging engineering education in China. Regarding the cultivation of emerging engineering talent, it is emphasized to gradually penetrate core competencies into emerging engineering education, so as to promote a deep integration of emerging engineering courses and humanistic qualities [5] and enhance the combination of humanistic education and moral education [6]. By sorting out the existing research results, it was found that the practice of cultivating emerging engineering talent mainly points to two aspects: specialty construction and curriculum reform.

Firstly, in terms of specialty construction, Xue and Zhang (2021) [103] pointed out that majors such as transportation and civil engineering should be upgraded and transformed, and on the basis of optimizing the foundation course of these majors and strengthening the training of practical ability, the core competencies of students should be continuously cultivated to better comply with the trends in informational development. Liu and Liu (2019) [104] took the engineering cost major as an example and proposed that professional transformation should be carried out in line with local characteristics, which meant we should change the traditional mode of theoretical teaching, form a differentiated school-running system, and enhance students’ endogenous motivation and core competitiveness by building the double-quality teachers’ team and changing educational concepts. Wang et al. (2021) [105] committed to building a core professional competencies training mode for construction management majors, proposed measures such as an optimized practical teaching system, constructed professional course modules, and established a “collaborative education platform” to improve the penetration level of professional abilities among students majoring in construction management in order to enhance their internal core competitiveness. According to the Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate (CDIO) concept of engineering education, Zhao et al. (2017) [106] analyzed the core competencies required by practical talent in mechatronics engineering, creatively designed the personnel training mode of the relevant major, and provided a reference for the practice and cultivation of talent.

Secondly, in terms of curriculum reform, Zhao et al. (2018) [107] believed that in the context of big data, colleges and universities needed to combine this kind of technology with emerging engineering talent’s cultivation and continuously enrich and integrate fresh curriculum content, which would provide fresh blood for curriculum construction and speed up the construction and reform of emerging engineering education. It also suggested that emphasis should be placed on cultivating emerging engineering talent with high comprehensive quality and innovative, interdisciplinary integration abilities. Gu (2020) [108] proposed that students’ core competencies should be further shaped by improving their social adaptation ability, constructing a diversified common governance system for talent cultivation and expanding interdisciplinary knowledge perspectives and other teaching methods, so as to provide a strong talent base for China in terms of future global competition. Li et al. (2019) [109] pointed out that engineering education should be carried out for engineering and technical talent to adapt to innovation and the knowledge economy, emphasizing the need to both establish an engineering-oriented curriculum system and design innovative teaching modes and advanced teaching methods for optimized teaching objectives, so as to cultivate interdisciplinary talent with strong engineering practice ability. Ye et al. (2017) [110] believed that practical teaching was an important component of cultivating applied talent and proposed building a novel concept of applied teaching that is oriented toward the needs of talent, integrated core competencies with engineering education, cultivated students’ engineering abilities based on industrial purposes, and strengthening students’ practical application level via the integration of industry and education. Hu (2019) [111] pointed out that in order to further enhance the effectiveness of emerging engineering education, it was necessary to integrate industry and education to cultivate more needed talent in society. Practical means such as the construction of teacher resources with “three measures”, the construction of interdisciplinary new technology research and development platforms with “three orientations”, the practice teaching platform resources with “four practical” linkage, and the construction of emerging engineering majors with “three new” standards should be adopted to enhance students’ practical abilities. In addition, it was considered necessary to establish a scientific quality evaluation system to better enhance students’ practical and innovative abilities. Fei (2017) [98] proposed that the construction of emerging engineering education should finally be implemented in relation to talent cultivation, especially in universities, which should grasp industrial needs, focus on interdisciplinary integration, and build a new mechanism for collaborative education.

The practice of cultivating emerging engineering talent is to continuously adapt to the new economic situation and form a Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle. By keeping up with the times and iteratively updating, we should actively accelerate the reform of specialty construction, curriculum systems, and teaching methods and evaluation mechanisms, overcoming the limitation of traditional concepts and prioritizing the cultivation of students’ practical abilities, so as to continuously improve the quality of emerging engineering education, strengthening the educational effect of emerging engineering talent to export excellent engineering professionals to social stability and make the cultivation of emerging engineering talent more dynamic and effective. In addition, via the analyses of researches on the educational practices of emerging engineering talent, the core competencies of engineering talent meeting social needs can be sorted out and some educational practices based on the cultivation of core competencies can better verify the suitability of talents with these core competencies to the needs of socio-economic development. The core competencies verified by practice provides a solid foundation for constructing the framework of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent.

2.2.4. Brief Summary of the Literature Review on Emerging Engineering Education

Through the literature review, we found that the research on emerging engineering education mainly focused on the connotations and characteristics of emerging engineering education, the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, and the educational practice of emerging engineering talent. In terms of the connotations and characteristics of emerging engineering education, the authors of this paper introduced the origin of emerging engineering education, analyzed the policy requirements of the construction of emerging engineering education, and explained the connotations of emerging engineering education from the aspects of concept, structure, mode, etc. In the aspect of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, by analyzing the general tendency of related research, the structure of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent was summarized from three aspects: professional competencies, critical innovation, and moral cultivation. In terms of training practice on emerging engineering talent, the paper explored the practical application of engineering majors in the cultivation of new engineering talent based on two aspects: professional construction and curriculum reform.

According to the literature review of emerging engineering education, this section interpreted the objectives and contents of emerging engineering education’s construction, clarified the structure of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent and the current situation of educational practice of emerging engineering talent, and extracted the core competencies of emerging engineering talent. This content provides an original template for a framework of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent and lays the theoretical basis for conducting expert interviews. In the next section, the paper will demonstrate the research gaps based on the results of the literature review.

2.3. Research Gaps

By summarizing and analyzing existing research results, domestic and foreign scholars have conducted systematic research on core competencies and emerging education engineering [6], constructing a good foundation for deeper research, which is mainly reflected in the following points:

Firstly, the world is undergoing profound changes and the academic community has reached a consensus: core competencies, as the key abilities and qualities that individuals should possess to realize their self-development, meet career needs, and promote social development in the face of uncertain risks and challenges in the future, are important research content for the cultivation of engineering talent in the future. Moreover, educational practices aimed at core competencies were more dynamic and effective in terms of talent cultivation. The EU’s Basic Framework for Core Literacy, the United States’ Basic Framework for 21st Century Core Literacy, and China’s Core Competencies for Development of Chinese Students were typical representatives of theoretical research and educational practices related to core competencies. However, these core competencies’ frameworks are all differentiated elements formed based on the national conditions of each country. A unified framework structure and defined scope have not yet been determined.

Secondly, the “emerging engineering education” proposed in China aimed to create emerging engineering majors and upgrade traditional engineering majors to meet the needs of future development. Relevant scholars have identified typical core competencies for emerging engineering talent by drawing on and absorbing research results relating to existing core competencies and integrating the background and industry characteristics of the emerging engineering education. However, given the large number of engineering majors, the core competencies of emerging engineering talent are proposed in various fields and majors shared commonalities, but the distinction between commonalities was not yet clear and most of these studies were conducted separately from theoretical research and educational practice, which could not provide good feedback on the real effect. Therefore, it was important and necessary to construct a universal framework of emerging engineering talent’s core competencies based on the combination of theoretical analysis and practical research and to validate and extract the framework by using the Delphi method.

Thirdly, domestic and foreign scholars have conducted practical research on the cultivation of core competencies and emerging engineering talent’s core competencies, involving course content, teaching methods, practical approaches, and evaluation mechanisms. However, there was relatively little content on the comparison of practical results and the effectiveness of the evaluation, which could not verify the achievement of the assumed core competency goals. Therefore, in order to achieve better practical results, on the basis of determining the framework of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, further analysis of the correlation between core competencies should be carried out to fully understand and master the influence paths of the formation of core competencies in terms of emerging engineering talent. Based on this, a scientific implementation plan for talent cultivation was formulated, which was conducive to reducing the difficulties and problems in later educational practice. It is also helpful in achieving the goals of talent cultivation and enriching the practical achievements of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent.

3. Research Methodology

The research methodology followed in this research work consists of three distinct stages, as shown in Figure 1. In the first stage, the literature research method and the Delphi method are used to extract the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, so as to build a framework of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent for follow-up research. In the second stage, a questionnaire survey and ISM are used to grade the core competencies of emerging engineering talent and build a hierarchical model. The third stage is to use MICMAC to verify the model, classify the core competencies of emerging engineering talent by calculating the driving power and dependence power, and analyze the correlation paths between the core competencies of emerging engineering talent.

3.1. Stage 1—Identifying the Core Competencies of Emerging Engineering Talent

Firstly, a literature review should be carried out to confirm the current status of relevant research. This research selects CNKI, SCIE, SSCI, and other databases to search with keywords such as “emerging engineering education”, “emerging engineering talent”, “new engineering talent”, “core competencies”, and “core competences”, respectively, to sort out the results of domestic and foreign research and identify the elements of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent [112]. The specific steps are as follows: (1) Set the types of documents to be searched as journal papers, master’s theses, doctoral theses, conference papers and books, etc., and exclude the literature unrelated to the core competencies of emerging engineering talent. Finally, 176 pieces of English literature and 263 pieces of Chinese literature were obtained. (2) According to the criteria of high integrating degree of a topic, short time span, highly cited, and a high degree of authority, 156 classical sampling papers were obtained, including 46 English papers and 110 Chinese papers. (3) After obtaining an initial list of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent via theoretical analyses and educational practices, two senior experts in the construction industry were invited to make the preliminary assessments on the scientificity and rationality of the list of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent and merge the factors that have a similar meaning. (4) Refining 17 core competencies of emerging engineering talent using the Delphi method. We invite six experts in engineering education and three experts in the construction industry to screen and review the identified core competencies; the experts have all been engaged in the industry for more than ten years, having the title of deputy senior or above, and all have rich theoretical teaching and educational practice experience in engineering education [113]. The screening criteria of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent are as follows: mean assignment of importance ≥ 3.50, coefficient of variation (CV) ≤ 0.25, and an expert approval rating (the selectivity of ≥4 points) ≥ 75% [114]. After three rounds of consultations, 11 core competencies of emerging engineering talent were determined using a combination of the pre-research and the opinions of all experts, as shown in

Table 3. Core competencies of emerging engineering talent.

One-Level Indicators	Core Competencies	Description	Literature Resource
Culture learning	Professional knowledge (S1)	Have solid professional theoretical knowledge; be familiar with the operation procedure of engineering technology; and know the cutting-edge knowledge of the engineering field.	[1,2,4,5,8,15,16,28,41,48,53,91,92,94,102,108]
	Interdisciplinary competence (S2)	The ability to cross-integrate knowledge and methods from different disciplines to analyze and solve problems.	[1,2,5,6,27,28,53,89,91,93,94,98,107,108,109]
	Engineering thinking (S3)	The ability to make use of engineering mathematics and logic calculus, which can generalize the conceptual conclusions and handling methods in mathematics to understand objective things.	[2,3,4,6,7,8,25,53,89,91,93,98,102,103,106,108]
Self-directed development	Entrepreneurial competence (S4)	The ability to break the routine and put forward distinctive new ideas and schemes; do things in new ways and put creative and innovative ideas into entrepreneurial action; and understand the arduousness and complexity of innovation and starting an undertaking.	[1,2,3,4,6,7,8,19,22,25,38,39,49,54,55,56,85,89,91,92,94,97,101,102]
	Lifelong learning ability (S5)	Have the awareness and habit of active learning; have the ability to constantly update and improve their own knowledge structure; master correct learning methods; and have lifelong learning awareness and ability.	[1,4,7,8,15,16,17,18,19,25,28,38,41,46,50,55,78,89,91,93,96,100,102,109]
	Practical ability (S6)	The ability to analyze practical engineering problems, develop and design solutions, and debug and maintain engineering operation.	[1,3,5,6,7,8,15,25,41,43,50,60,71,85,89,91,94,96,97,103,106,108,109,111]
	Leadership (S7)	Use leadership in the face of various changes, including making timely adjustments, having transfer ability thinking, and solving problems efficiently.	[4,6,23,44,46,47,55,89,94,96,100,102]
	Critical thinking ability (S8)	Be able to use scientific methods to analyze and solve problems dialectically in complex situations; carry out self-reflection and continuous improvement to thinking and actions; make plans and adjustments according to practical needs; and have an objective understanding to self-cognition and self-evaluation.	[4,7,8,15,22,25,39,46,47,51,52,55,96,98,99]
Social participation	Professional ethics (S9)	The devotion to work; craftsmanship spirit; and obeyance of moral code and industrial laws and regulations.	[1,4,6,7,15,28,49,85,89,101]
	Patriotism and collectivism (S10)	Have a strong sense of identity, belonging and responsibility for the country, national pride, national confidence, and national dignity.	[1,4,6,7,8,15,27,40,49,57,71,85,97,100,101,102]
	Intercultural competence (S11)	Have an international mindset and international consciousness; keep an open mind in the face of heterogeneous culture; and actively participate in cross-cultural communication.	[1,7,8,27,85,91,97,98,108]

.

A total of 11 core competencies of emerging engineering talent can be roughly divided into three aspects: cultural learning, self-directed development, and social participation. Cultural learning includes three indexes: professional knowledge (S₁), interdisciplinary competence (S₂), and engineering thinking (S₃). Professional knowledge (S₁) requires engineering talent to have solid professional theoretical knowledge, be familiar with the operation procedure of engineering technology, be aware of possible engineering problems, and understand the cutting-edge knowledge and development trends in the engineering field. Interdisciplinary competence (S₂) refers to the ability of engineering talent to cross-integrate the knowledge and methods of different disciplines and professional fields, integrating diverse knowledge such as mathematics, economics, and management to analyze and address engineering problems. Engineering thinking (S₃) means that engineering talent should have the thinking of engineering mathematics and logical capability, along with empirical consciousness and a rigorous thirst for knowledge. They can apply a scientific way of thinking to know things, solve problems, direct practice, and so on. Self-directed development includes entrepreneurial competence (S₄) and lifelong learning ability (S₅), practical ability (S₆), leadership (S₇), and critical thinking ability (S₈). Entrepreneurial competence (S₄) refers to the ability of engineering talent to break the routine, put forward distinctive solutions to solve existing problems with new perspectives, and new thinking models and new methods, along with an awareness of transformation that makes creative and innovative ideas into entrepreneurial actions. Lifelong learning ability (S₅) means that engineering talent can take the initiative to learn according to their own interests and social needs, constantly renew and perfect their knowledge structure, master correct learning methods, have the awareness and ability of lifelong learning, and etc. Practical ability (S₆) refers to the ability of engineering talent to analyze practical engineering problems, design and develop solutions, debug and maintain the engineering operation, and take action in a complex environment. They can also choose and formulate reasonable solutions according to specific situations and conditions. Leadership (S₇) means that engineering talent has good communication and cooperation ability and organizing ability, which equips them with transfer thinking and enables them create a good atmosphere of team cooperation, exert leadership in the face of various changes, make timely adjustments, and solve problems efficiently. Critical thinking ability (S₈) refers to the ability of engineering talent to think independently, dialectically analyze problems from multiple perspectives in complex situations, make choices and decisions, and continuously reflect on and improve their own thinking and behavior. And, they have the consciousness and habit of examining their learning state and being good at summing up their experience, so as to adjust learning strategies and methods according to different circumstances and their own situations. Social participation includes three indicators: professional ethics (S₉), patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀), and intercultural competence (S₁₁). Professional ethics (S₉) means that engineering talent loves their jobs, have the spirit of craftsmanship, and comply with moral code, industry standards, and legal regulations. Patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀) means that engineering talent has a strong sense of identity, belonging, and responsibility for the country, a sense of national confidence and national pride, and a sense of social responsibility, which is embodied when paying attention to the impact of engineering on society, environment, health, safety, law, and culture. Intercultural competence (S₁₁) means that engineering talent should have international thinking and consciousness, keep an open mind in the face of heterogeneous groups, and actively participate in cross-cultural communication. And, they also have minds that integrate various societal resources via interdisciplinary, cross-industry, and cross-domain approaches.

3.2. Stage 2—Interpretive Structural Modeling

Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) proposed by Professor Warfield was mainly used to sort out the relationship between influencing factors [115]. ISM can decompose complex systems into subsystems by constructing related matrices and can further obtain the influence of each subsystem in the model [116]. Using ISM, we can deeply grasp the essence of the problem and find out the way to solve the problem. ISM is usually used to study the structure and hierarchical relationship of elements in the system, classifying the influencing factors that have a large number and complex structural relationship [117]. This method is adopted in this paper to further explore the correlation paths and hierarchical relationship between the core competencies of emerging engineering talent.

3.2.1. Step 1: Questionnaire Survey

In order to avoid bias in determining the logical relationship between the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, a questionnaire was sent by email to 120 experts in engineering education and business elites in the construction industry between April and July 2023. V, A, X, and O, four simplified symbols representing the relationships between the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, were used. To ensure that follow-up studies can be carried out as planned, the experts were called when necessary. Finally, 104 valid questionnaires were collected for the next step. Experts’ opinions were used to establish a structural self-interaction matrix (SSIM). The four symbols were used to indicate the direction of these factors (i, j) [118]:

• V: S_i helps to achieve S_j;
• A: S_j helps to achieve S_i;
• X: S_i and S_j help to achieve each other;
• O: S_i and S_j are unrelated.

3.2.2. Step 2: Establishing the IRM

Establishing the IRM based on SSIM: During the second step of the ISM, the SSIM was converted into the initial reachability matrix (IRM) by replacing the entries of the matrix with binary numbers. The SSIM transformation to IRM is processed based on the following principles:

• If represented by the V symbol, recommend changing the values of i and j to 1 and j and i to 0 according to the conversion rule.
• If represented by the A symbol, recommend changing the values of i and j to 0 and j and i to 1 according to the conversion rule.
• If represented by the X symbol, recommend changing the values of i and j to 1 and j and i to 1 according to the conversion rule.
• If represented by the O symbol, recommend changing the values of i and j to 0 and j and i to 0 according to the conversion rule [119].

3.2.3. Step 3: Constructing the FRM

In the third step, the IRM is converted into the final reachability matrix (FRM) using transitivity principles. The transitivity rule indicates that if X has a relation with Y and Y has a relation with Z, then there should also be a relation between X and Z. The FRM is formulated by incorporating “1 *” entries into the IRM to cope with any logical gaps that existed after the collection of experts’ opinions [119].

3.2.4. Step 4: Hierarchical Decomposition of FRM

After calculating the FRM, it is necessary to decompose it. The set of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent whose matrix element is 1 in the row is determined as being R(S_i), that is, the Reachability Set of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent. The set of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent whose matrix element is 1 in the column is determined as being A(S_i), that is, the Antecedent Set of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent. The Intersection R(S_i) ∩ A(S_i) is represented by I(S_i), that is, the Intersection Set of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent. If R(S_i) and I(S_i) of particular core competencies of emerging engineering talent are found to be the same, this competence is regarded as level 1 and placed at the top of the ISM hierarchy [120]. After determining the core competencies of emerging engineering talent at the first level, ignore them. The same procedure is applied to identify the core competencies of emerging engineering talent at other levels, and the iteration continues until all the core competencies of emerging engineering talent are assigned to each level in the ISM hierarchy.

3.3. Stage 3—MICMAC Analysis Applied to Classification

In order to verify the rationality of the hierarchical decomposition of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, Matrice d’ Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliqués à un Classement (MICMAC) should be used to calculate the driving power and dependence power of each core competence of emerging engineering talent and then clarify the role and status of each of them in the system. Thinking of each core competence as a factor, driving power refers to the influence of a certain factor on other factors. When the driving power increases, this factor has a greater effect on others. Dependence power refers to the influence of other factors on the factor; the higher the dependence power, the higher the degree of dependence of this factor on other factors [121]. The following are details about the major steps of the MICMAC analysis:

3.3.1. Step 1: Calculating Driving Power and Dependence Power

Based on the FRM, the sum of the number of matrix elements “1” in the row where the core competence of emerging engineering talent (S_i) resides is driving power, and the sum of the number of matrix elements “1” in the column where the core competence S_i of emerging engineering talent resides is dependence power. The result can be represented by the rectangular coordinate system. The x-coordinate is the dependence power and the y-coordinate is the driving power.

3.3.2. Step 2: Classify Influencing Factors into Four Quadrants

The core competencies of emerging engineering talent are classified into four quadrants according to their driving power and dependence power. The names and characteristics of each quadrant are shown below:

Quadrant I—Linkage Factors: This quadrant represents the linkage factors, with high driving power and dependence power and relatively weak independence and instability, where it is easy to affect other core competencies of emerging engineering talent and themselves.

Quadrant II—Driving Factors: This quadrant represents the driving factors, which have the characteristics of low dependence power and high driving power. Driving factors have been taken as key factors located in the root layer. This is because when they change, it can have a significant impact on other factors and the entire system.

Quadrant III—Autonomous Factors: This quadrant has the characteristics of low driving power and dependence power and has relatively little influence on the whole system. Located in the intermediate layer, it plays an important role in the mediation and correlation, which not only affects the factors of the upper layer, but it is also restricted by the factors of the next layer. However, at the same time, if we pay attention to the factors of this quadrant, it will promote the overall effect of the system [122].

Quadrant IV—Dependent Factors: This quadrant shows the characteristics of weak driving power but strong dependence power, so they are susceptible to other factors and need to rely on other factors to solve the problem.

3.3.3. Step 3: Drawing the “Driving Power and Dependence Power” Quadrant Diagram

Based on the categorization, the predominant factors (driving factors and linkage factors) that should be considered in the process of cultivating the core competencies of emerging engineering talent were determined.

4. Results

4.1. Interpretive Structural Modeling

4.1.1. Step 1: Establishing Mutual Relationship of the Core Competencies of Emerging Engineering Talent by Using SSIM

In the end, 104 meaningful responses were collected from a total of 120 questionnaires for further analysis. With regard to gender, 45.19% were men and 54.81% were women. For the qualifications, survey respondents with a bachelor’s degree accounted for 24.04% of the applications, and those with a master’s degree and doctoral degree accounted for 37.50% and 38.46%, respectively. In terms of working experience, the calculation shows that 5.77% had 5–10 years of industry experience, and 11–15 and 16–20 years accounted for 27.88% and 39.42%, respectively, and 26.92% had over 20 years of working experience. For the titles, 41 of the survey respondents had high professional titles, while 57 of them had sub-advanced titles and six had medium-grade professional titles. The SSIM developed based on the expert opinions is presented in

Table 4. Structural self-interaction matrix.

	S1	S2	S3	S4	S5	S6	S7	S8	S9	S10	S11
S1	-	V	X	O	O	V	O	V	V	O	O
S2		-	O	V	V	O	V	O	O	O	O
S3			-	V	O	V	V	V	O	O	O
S4				-	X	O	O	O	O	A	X
S5					-	O	O	O	X	O	X
S6						-	O	V	V	O	O
S7							-	O	O	O	X
S8								-	V	V	O
S9									-	X	O
S10										-	A
S11											-

. The relationships between the core competencies of emerging engineering talent are represented by V, A, X, and O, which are obtained by summarizing the results of the questionnaire survey. According to the screening criteria of the Delphi method, the options with an expert approval rating of ≥70% are taken as the final result. For example, up to 70 percent of experts indicated that S₁ (professional knowledge) helped to achieve S₂ (interdisciplinary competence); hence, the corresponding entry for (S₁, S₂) was “V”. Meanwhile, the experts indicated that S₁₀ (patriotism and collectivism) helped to achieve S₄ (entrepreneurial competence); thus, the corresponding entry for (S₄, S₁₀) was “A”. Further, the experts indicated that S₁ and S₁₁ (intercultural competence) were unrelated, so the corresponding entry was “O”, whereas S₁ and S₃ (engineering thinking) helped to achieve each other, so the corresponding entry was “X”. Finally, the corresponding entry of (S₁, S₂), (S₁, S₆), (S₁, S₈), (S₁, S₉), (S₂, S₄), (S₂, S₅), (S₂, S₇), (S₃, S₄), (S₃, S₆), (S₃, S₇), (S₃, S₈), (S₆, S₈), (S₆, S₉), (S₈, S₉), and (S₈, S₁₀) was “V”; the corresponding entry of (S₁, S₃), (S₄, S₅), (S₄, S₁₁),(S₅, S₉), (S₅, S₁₁), (S₇, S₁₁) and (S₉, S₁₀) was “X”; the corresponding entry of (S₄, S₁₀) and (S₁₀, S₁₁) was “A”; and the corresponding entry of the rest was “O”.

4.1.2. Step 2: SSIM Conversion to IRM

Due to the huge amount of data, the relevant data arrangements and subsequent calculations were completed using a computer and the symbols used in SSIM need to be converted into numbers that can be recognized by the computer. According to the transitivity rule described in the methodology section, SSIM was transformed into the ISM with binary digits 0 and 1. For example, as the (S₁, S₂) entry in the SSIM was “V”, the IRM (S₁, S₂) entry was “1” and (S₂, S₁) was “0”. Conversely, as the (S₄, S₁₀) entry in the SSIM was “A”, the IRM (S₄, S₁₀) entry was “0” and (S₁₀, S₄) was “1”. In addition, as the (S₁, S₁₁) entry in the SSIM was “O”, the IRM (S₁, S₁₁) entry was “0” and (S₁₁, S₁) was “0”; as the (S₁, S₃) entry in the SSIM was “X”, the IRM (S₁, S₃) entry was “1” and (S₃, S₁) was “1” [123].

Table 5. Initial reachability matrix.

	S1	S2	S3	S4	S5	S6	S7	S8	S9	S10	S11
S1	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	0
S2	0	1	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
S3	1	0	1	1	0	1	1	1	0	0	0
S4	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
S5	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	1
S6	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	0
S7	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
S8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	0
S9	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	0
S10	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
S11	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	1	1

shows the IRM generated by exchanging the entries of the SSIM.

4.1.3. Step 3: FRM Drafting by Using IRM

IRM only shows the direct relationships between the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, and it is also necessary to determine the indirect relationships according to the transitivity principle introduced in the research methodology part. According to the transitivity principle, the correlation analysis is carried out for the factors whose value is “0” in IRM. For example, the experts did not establish the relation between S₄ and S₇, but S₄ was related to S₁₁ and S₁₁ was related to S₇. In consideration of the transitivity principle, it should also establish the relation between S₄ and S₇. Under this principle, in order to ensure consistency with the transfer logic of the IRM, “(S₄, S₇)” was changed to “1 *” [124]. At the same time, since S₇ was related to S₁₁ and S₁₁ was related to S₄, a relation between S₇ and S₄ should also be established following the transitivity principle. At the same time, changing (S₇, S₄) to “1 *” also follows the transitivity principle. In the end, the IRM is transformed into the FRM with strict logic. In this paper, 28 indirect correlation paths were identified, among which there are two indirect correlation relationships between the core competencies in the root layer and the core competencies in the intermediate layer, 11 indirect interaction relationships between the core competencies in the intermediate layer and the core competencies in the direct layer, seven indirect correlation relationships between the core competencies in the root layer and the core competencies in the direct layer, and seven indirect correlation relationships among the core competencies in the direct layer. Finally, the corresponding entry of (S₁, S₄), (S₁, S₅), (S₁, S₇), (S₁, S₁₀), (S₂, S₉), (S₂, S₁₁), (S₃, S₂), (S₃, S₅), (S₃, S₉), (S₃, S₁₀), (S₃, S₁₁), (S₄, S₇), (S₄, S₉), (S₄, S₁₀), (S₅, S₇), (S₅, S₁₀), (S₆, S₅), (S₆, S₁₀), (S₇, S₄), (S₇, S₅), (S₇, S₁₀), (S₈, S₄), (S₈, S₅), (S₉, S₄), (S₉, S₁₁), (S₁₀, S₅), (S₁₀, S₁₁) and (S₁₁, S₉) was “1 *”, as shown in

Table 6. Final reachability matrix.

	S1	S2	S3	S4	S5	S6	S7	S8	S9	S10	S11	Driving Power
S1	1	1	1	1 *	1 *	1	1 *	1	1	1 *	0	10
S2	0	1	0	1	1	0	1	0	1 *	0	1 *	6
S3	1	1 *	1	1	1 *	1	1	1	1 *	1 *	1 *	11
S4	0	0	0	1	1	0	1 *	0	1 *	1 *	1	6
S5	0	0	0	1	1	0	1 *	0	1	1 *	1	6
S6	0	0	0	0	1 *	1	0	1	1	1 *	0	5
S7	0	0	0	1 *	1 *	0	1	0	0	1 *	1	5
S8	0	0	0	1 *	1 *	0	0	1	1	1	0	5
S9	0	0	0	1 *	1	0	0	0	1	1	1 *	5
S10	0	0	0	1	1 *	0	0	0	1	1	1 *	5
S11	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	1 *	1	1	6
Dependence Power	2	3	2	10	11	3	7	4	10	10	8

.

4.1.4. Step 4: FRM Segregation into Various Levels

In this step, the hierarchical structure of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent is obtained mainly via ISM. According to the hierarchical decomposition condition A(S_i) = R(S_i) ∩ Q(S_i) = R(S_i), the core competencies of emerging engineering talent are classified at different levels [122]. For example, in the first iteration, R(S_i) of S₄, S₅, S₉, S₁₀, and S₁₁ are consistent with I(S_i), so these factors can be judged as belonging to the same level. S₇ and S₈ cannot be divided into the first level because R(S_i) and I(S_i) are not consistent. According to the hierarchical approach, the hierarchy is as follows: Level₁ = {S₄, S₅, S₉, S₁₀, S₁₁}, Level₂ = {S₇, S₈}, Level₃ = {S₂, S₆}, and Level₄ = {S₁, S₃}. The results of hierarchical decomposition are shown in

Table 7. Hierarchical decomposition of the FRM.

Si	Reachability Set R(Si)	Antecedent Set A(Si)	Intersection Set I(Si)	Levels
S1	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10	1, 3	1, 3	Level1 = {S4, S5, S9, S10, S11}
S2	2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11	1, 2, 3	2
S3	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11	1, 3	1, 3
S4	4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11	4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11
S5	4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11	1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11	4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11
S6	5, 6, 8, 9, 10	1, 3, 6	6
S7	4, 5, 7, 10, 11	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 11	4, 5, 7, 11
S8	4, 5, 8, 9, 10	1, 3, 6, 8	8
S9	4, 5, 9, 10, 11	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11	4, 5, 9, 10, 11
S10	4, 5, 9, 10, 11	1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11	4, 5, 9, 10, 11
S11	4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11	2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11	4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11
S1	1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8	1, 3	1, 3	Level2 = {S7, S8}
S2	2, 7	1, 2, 3	2
S3	1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8	1, 3	1, 3
S6	6, 8	1, 3, 6	6
S7	7	1, 2, 3, 7	7
S8	8	1, 3, 6, 8	8
S1	1, 2, 3, 6	1, 3	1, 3	Level3 = {S2, S6}
S2	2	1, 2, 3	2
S3	1, 2, 3, 6	1, 3	1, 3
S6	6	1, 3, 6	6	Level4 = {S1, S3}
S1	1, 3	1, 3	1, 3
S3	1, 3	1, 3	1, 3

.

4.1.5. Step 5: Explanation of ISM

According to the results of the above hierarchical decomposition, the core competencies of emerging engineering talent with interrelationships are connected to reflect the correlation paths between them and the ISM of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent can be obtained, as shown in Figure 2. ISM is a visualization of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, which shows the position of each core competence of emerging engineering talent in the hierarchical structure model. The ISM of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent was divided into three layers, including four levels.

Level₁ belongs to the direct layer, which is the direct element of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, including entrepreneurial competence (S₄), lifelong learning ability (S₅), professional ethics (S₉), patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀), and intercultural competence (S₁₁). Level₂ and Level₃ belong to the intermediate layer and serve as mediators in the overall ISM modeling. Elements of the intermediate layer are both influencing and influenced factors [120], including interdisciplinary competence (S₂), practical ability (S₆), leadership (S₇), and critical thinking ability (S₈). Elements of Level₄ are fundamental factors of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, including professional knowledge (S₁) and engineering thinking (S₃).

The correlation paths in ISM take professional knowledge and engineering thinking as the starting point and reveal that professional knowledge (S₁) and engineering thinking (S₃), belonging to the root layer, play an important and decisive role in the core competencies of emerging engineering talent. As can be seen from Figure 2, professional knowledge (S₁) interacts with engineering thinking (S₃) in the root layer, having an overall impact on the intermediate layer. The professional knowledge (S₁) in the root layer has an impact on the interdisciplinary competence (S₂), practical ability (S₆), and critical thinking ability (S₈) in the intermediate layer and has an impact on professional ethics (S₉) in the direct layer. Engineering thinking (S₃) in the root layer has an impact on practical ability (S₆), leadership (S₇) and critical thinking ability (S₈) in the intermediate layer and has an impact on entrepreneurial competence (S₄) in the direct layer.

The intermediate layer influences the direct layer under the influence of the root layer. The interdisciplinary competence (S₂) of the intermediate layer, influenced by professional knowledge (S₁) of the root layer, has an impact on the leadership (S₇) of the intermediate layer and the entrepreneurial competence (S₄) and lifelong learning ability (S₅) of the direct layer. The practical ability (S₆) of the intermediate layer, influenced by the engineering thinking (S₃) of the root layer, has an impact on the critical thinking ability (S₈) of the intermediate layer and the professional ethics (S₉) of the direct layer. The leadership (S₇) of the intermediate layer interacts with the intercultural competence (S₁₁) of the direct layer. The critical thinking ability (S₈) of the intermediate layer has an impact on the professional ethics of the direct layer (S₉) and patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀).

The elements in the direct layer interact with each other under the influence of the root layer and the intermediate layer. The intercultural competence (S₁₁) of the direct layer affects patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀), and the four elements of entrepreneurial competence (S₄), lifelong learning ability (S₅), professional ethics (S₉), and patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀), show a relationship of two-way influence. Entrepreneurial competence (S₄), lifelong learning ability (S₅), and intercultural competence (S₁₁) also have a two-way impact. The joint action of the root layer, the intermediate layer, and the direct layer builds the system of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent.

4.2. MICMAC Analysis

The statistical outcomes of driving and dependence powers are presented in

Table 8. Numerical value of driving power and dependence power.

Core Competencies	Dependence Power	Driving Power
S1	2	10
S2	3	6
S3	2	11
S4	10	6
S5	11	6
S6	3	5
S7	7	5
S8	4	5
S9	10	5
S10	10	5
S11	8	6

.

The core competencies of emerging engineering talent are divided into four clusters according to driving power and dependence power, that is, linkage factors, driving factors, autonomous factors, and dependent factors. The “driving power—dependence power” quadrant diagram of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent is drawn and shown in Figure 3. S₄, S₅, S₉, S₁₀, and S₁₁ are identified as dependent factors; S₂, S₆, S₇, and S₈ are identified as autonomous factors; and S₁ and S₃ are identified as driving factors.

5. Discussion of Findings

There are not only direct correlation paths but also implicit correlation paths and functional relationships among the core competencies of emerging engineering talent. Considering the dual functions of direct paths and indirect paths comprehensively is beneficial to maximize the training effect of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent by adopting diversified methods from multiple angles. To examine the interrelationships among the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, a combination of ISM and MICMAC techniques is utilized for verification:

(1) Linkage Factors

There are no core competencies that belong to Quadrant I. It shows that the core competencies of emerging engineering talent are relatively independent and there are no linkage factors belonging to the fuzzy correlation concept, indicating that the stability of this system is good.

(2) Driving Factors

The core competencies of emerging engineering talent belonging to driving factors include S₁ and S₃, which have the characteristics of high driving power and low dependence power. They mainly play the driving role in the system, which means that when changes occur, they will have a huge impact on other factors and the system and are called key factors.

Professional knowledge (S₁) means students should have a solid engineering foundation, sufficient engineering knowledge, and a clear understanding of engineering problems; engineering thinking (S₃) is using mathematical models to analyze complex engineering problems and hammer out solutions. Professional knowledge (S₁) and engineering thinking (S₃), like a foundation, play an important role in shaping the core competencies of emerging engineering talent [53]. In addition, with the rapid development of modern science and technology, the scientific and technological content of engineering activities is increasing day by day, and the emergence of many influencing factors such as society, economy, and environment puts forward higher requirements for the comprehensive quality of emerging engineering talent. The cultivation of professional knowledge (S₁) and engineering thinking (S₃) helps engineering talent master the thinking and methods to solve complex engineering problems, know the academic foreland and developing trend of the specialty, and become the key elements of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent [91].

In the root layer, professional knowledge (S₁) and engineering thinking (S₃) interact and penetrate each other and become the basis for cultivating the core competencies of emerging engineering talent. Many professional courses and knowledge of engineering majors are based on the extension and application of mathematical theories, such as engineering mechanics. An in-depth study of professional knowledge will deepen the understanding and mastery of mathematical theories, help train mathematical thinking and logical capabilities in engineering, and form engineering thinking. Engineering thinking can reduce the difficulty of learning professional knowledge [8], master the methods of analyzing and simulating engineering problems, help widen the scope of professional knowledge, build an integrated system of knowledge, enhance one’s cognitive level, and better adapt to the developments and changes in society.

If the students’ professional knowledge and engineering thinking are well cultivated, forming a virtuous circle to meet the realistic demand of China’s engineering talent education, it is expected to further improve the competence structure of emerging engineering talent and accelerate the construction of emerging engineering education, finally achieving high-quality and excellent effects in terms of educational practice. Therefore, we should attach great importance to these two competencies, effectively improving the training effect of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent and indirectly affecting the synergistic improvement of other competencies via the correlation paths of ISM.

(3) Autonomous Factors

The core competencies of emerging engineering talent belonging to autonomous factors include S₂, S₆, S₇, and S₈, which have low driving power and dependence power and little influence on the overall system. This kind of factor is located in the intermediate layer and plays the role of mediation and correlation, which can not only affect the factors in the upper level, but can also be restricted by the factors in the next level. The improvement of interdisciplinary competence (S₂), practical ability (S₆), leadership (S₇), and critical thinking ability (S₈) will enhance the ability of emerging engineering talent to analyze and solve complex engineering problems, broadening their horizons and laying a solid foundation for them to better adapt to future society.

Strengthening professional knowledge (S₁) will have a significant effect on the improvement of interdisciplinary competence (S₂), practical ability (S₆), and critical thinking ability (S₈). With the rise of new industries based on cross-disciplinary backgrounds, the adaptability of a single knowledge structure in traditional education models is declining. Promoting the cross-integration of the knowledge structure of emerging engineering talent and cultivating students’ cross-disciplinary competence has become the development trend of future-oriented emerging engineering education. Interdisciplinary competence (S₂) based on professional knowledge (S₁) can break open a subject when analyzing and solving problems with an overall, global, and systematic vision and help develop thinking [94]. Solid professional knowledge (S₁) not only enables students to have a wide range of knowledge but also strengthens students’ ability to analyze and solve problems, making them take the initiative in terms of practicing and performing well, enhancing students’ practical abilities (S₆) and laying a good foundation for student competence in future engineering works in order to cope with complex engineering problems [94]. In addition, in the process of learning and practicing professional knowledge (S₁), a good professional foundation is conducive to developing good habits of independent thinking and dialectical analysis. Using scientific methods and rational thinking to discover, analyze, and solve problems promotes the formation of critical thinking abilities in students (S₈) and enables them to “recharge” themselves to meet the challenges of the new era [8].

The cultivation of engineering thinking (S₃) will strengthen practical abilities (S₆), leadership (S₇), and critical thinking abilities (S₈). Engineering thinking can help engineering talent analyze and recognize the essence of complex engineering problems, implement scientific engineering project management and engineering decisions, and make timely adjustments in the face of crises and emergencies so that they can continuously develop their leadership (S₇) and practical ability (S₆) in the cycle of analyzing and solving problems. In addition, engineering thinking helps engineering talent to analyze complex engineering problems, solve them with scientific methods and rational thinking, and continuously put forward improving plans according to the actual situation in the process of problem solving, helping engineering talent to constantly rethink and improve their thinking and behaviors [25] and enhance their critical thinking abilities (S₈).

Interdisciplinary integration has become a significant trend in future engineering development, which expands the connotations and development space of modern engineering and endows modern engineering with comprehensive attributes of humanity, service, economy, and society. Interdisciplinary competence (S₂) can improve engineering talent’s coordination and organizational ability of resources, manpower, and time. In particular, with the acceleration of industrialization, modernization, and urbanization, the pressure on resources and environment increases, the contradiction between man and nature intensifies, and crises and emergencies occur more frequently. Engineering talent use interdisciplinary competence to deal with complex engineering problems in all conditions, which plays a prominent role in improving leadership (S₇). Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth, and only high practical ability (S₆) can achieve better results. In order to achieve the expected goals, engineering talent need to constantly put forward new ideas and new methods to analyze and solve problems in professional practice and reflect on existing problems, explore the direction of improvement, and propose feasible plans and countermeasures according to different situations. Only by constantly optimizing solutions to problems via practice can we achieve self-perfection and improve critical thinking abilities (S₈).

Solid professional knowledge (S₁) enables students to have good learning ability. On the basis of mastering the professional knowledge required by the personnel cultivating the program, students will consciously expand other relevant knowledge by understanding the academic foreland and future market change, selectively integrating the knowledge from other categories or disciplines, and finally, by forming the interdisciplinary competence according to their own preferences and future career planning. With the deepening of learning, students will constantly clarify their own development needs, further supplement relevant knowledge, and improve their comprehensive quality. This is especially relevant for students who volunteer to be senior executives of enterprises and who will make targeted references to the responsibilities and requirements of management positions, such as in the case of project managers, and purposefully exercise their soft abilities such as organization, coordination, and project management, and who, therefore, must develop leadership (S₇) in advance [125]. Engineering thinking (S₃) helps students master the methods of analyzing and simulating engineering problems, thus reducing the difficulty of learning professional knowledge, broadening the breadth of professional knowledge, building a broad knowledge system, and enabling students to improve their cognition, which allows them to cater to the development trend of new industries and new engineering actively, break through the boundaries of this discipline, explore the cross-integration of multidisciplinary and multidisciplinary knowledge, exercise interdisciplinary competence (S₂), and seize the new opportunities of technological innovation and industrial development in this industry, so as to be in a favorable position in relation to future workplace competition [126].

The formation of core competencies in emerging engineering talent is a complex systematic project which must have both direct and indirect correlation paths. In order to better achieve the goals of promoting emerging engineering education, a careful consideration of the specific requirements is required, such as the future strategic deployment of the country and the actual demand of the market while also exerting direct effects, where it is suggested that those involved must deeply explore the implicit, indirect correlation paths between core competencies, make full use of the mediation role of competencies in the intermediate layer, and maximize the achievement of the ultimate goals and enhance the effectiveness of talent cultivation.

(4) Dependent Factors

The core competencies of emerging engineering talent belonging to dependent factors include S₄, S₅, S₉, S₁₀, and S₁₁, which are characterized by low driving power and high dependence power. They are easily affected by other factors in the system and need to rely on other factors to solve problems. The five elements of entrepreneurial competence (S₄), lifelong learning ability (S₅), professional ethics (S₉), patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀), and intercultural competence (S₁₁) reflect the social adaptation ability and the moral construction of emerging engineering talent. The core competencies of the direct layer are the indicators used to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of emerging engineering talent cultivation, echoing the goals of emerging engineering education. In the process of social development, entrepreneurial competence (S₄), lifelong learning ability (S₅), and intercultural competence (S₁₁), they are essential for engineering talent, but only by strengthening professional ethics, conducting patriotic education, and realizing self-development in the great national undertaking can we cultivate talent with both ability and merit and maintain an invincible position against fierce future competition.

Professional knowledge (S₁) includes systematic education on vocational standards. Profound professional knowledge shapes good professional ethics; thus, engineering talent can consciously abide by laws, regulations, and industry standards in practice. Moreover, engineering ethics are integrated into the professional knowledge system, which further cultivates the social responsibility of engineering talent, making them good at balancing the interests of all parties and taking the initiative in assuming responsibility in protecting the natural environment and repaying society; moreover, the level of professional ethics (S₉) continues to improve [4]. Engineering thinking (S₃) enables engineering talent to master the methods and tools needed to carry out innovation and entrepreneurship. With the progress and development of society, methods and tools have diversified and the frequency of activities in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship has also increased, of which the entrepreneurial competence (S₄) of engineering talent is continuously being refined [102]. Entrepreneurial competence is the key competence required for future industrial competition. In the process of shaping engineering thinking, the development of innovation and entrepreneurial ability should be laid out in advance. In the training of engineering thinking and logic, awareness and thinking about innovation and starting a new business should be purposefully encouraged to stimulate the vitality of innovation and improve entrepreneurial competence.

The development of science and technology accelerates the iterative upgrading of knowledge and the field of engineering continues to expand. In this context, the static knowledge structure is no longer able to adapt to the changing environment. Interdisciplinary competence (S₂) can constantly break through the limitations of traditional concepts, provide timely access to external information with a developmental perspective, and update and apply new knowledge to rapidly adapt to the ever-changing circumstances. Interdisciplinary competence promotes the cross-integration between different disciplines, increases the possibility of professional innovation, makes it convenient to learn from the advanced and successful experience in other professional fields, leads to the formation of feasible innovation and entrepreneurial programs, and enables carrying out practical exploration via the integration of professional education and entrepreneurial education and the integration of industry and education, so as to cultivate entrepreneurial competence (S₄) in many ways [94]. In the information age, the renewal cycle of knowledge and technology is shrinking, and this cycle is crucial to realizing the cross-integration of knowledge from different disciplines via interdisciplinary competence (S₂) as it also encourages engineering talent to keep learning new knowledge and methods in addition to their major, gradually develop an awareness of and aptitude for active learning along with the iteration of knowledge, and form lifelong learning abilities (S₅). Practical ability (S₆) is mainly reflected in the consistency of working achievements and standards. The stronger the practical abilities are, the more standardized engineering behaviors will be, and professional ethics (S₉), which are the expression of the practice of engineering standards [15], will also be strengthened. Within the scope specified by the standard, in order to obtain perfect engineering achievements and performance, engineering talent persist in practicing and exploring with an awe and love of the profession. The process of hard work is in itself an embodiment of professional dedication and craftsmanship, and excellent practical ability will inevitably foster a professional spirit of strictness, earnestness, concentration, and pragmatism that then engender noble professional ethics. Leadership (S₇) is closely related to intercultural competence (S₁₁). Excellent leadership, good coordination, communication, and overall management; keeping an open mind in the face of different cultures, ideologies, and demands; integrating multi-forces with an open mind; selecting and appointing talented and capable people; and making use of all positive factors to efficiently complete projects are all concrete manifestations of intercultural competence. At the same time, engineering talent with intercultural competence can continuously improve their leadership in the process of facing different cultures. Therefore, the higher the leadership standards, the higher the intercultural competence; the development of intercultural competence will be able to tap into the engineering talent’s potential in terms of leadership. For example, in international construction projects, project managers should take a broad and long-term view, carry out effective organization and coordination in a cross-cultural and cross-ethnic environment, and coagulate strengths to deal with complex engineering problems, complete international construction projects with high quality, and enhance the international influence and discourse power of Chinese construction. Critical thinking abilities (S₈) can help engineering talent examine and reflect on whether their behaviors conform to engineering norms in practice, correct their engineering behaviors according to public order and good customs recognized by society, and consciously abide by professional ethics (S₉). Professional behaviors can be improved and adjusted in a timely manner based on changes in real situations. Critical thinking abilities (S₈) will also help engineering talent reflect on the impact of their actions on the natural environment and social development, examine the relationship between their own development and national needs, and make it clear that only by devoting themselves to nation-building can they realize their dreams, so as to consciously establish a sense of mission and responsibility for national revival, put national interests first, and cultivate their own abilities according to the future deployment of the country, experiencing the spirit of patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀) contained in working practice [8].

In entrepreneurial competence (S₄), innovation is the foundation of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship is the driving force of innovation. Improving entrepreneurial competence can make engineering talent closely grasp the development trends of domestic and foreign industries and follow the market mechanisms to cope with the fierce market competition through continuous learning and growing, invisibly strengthening the lifelong learning ability (S₅). In turn, lifelong learning abilities (S₅) help engineering talent constantly update their knowledge reserve and knowledge structure, which is conducive to widening the scope of knowledge of professionals, discovering entrepreneurial opportunities and then promoting entrepreneurial competence (S₄). Improving entrepreneurial competence (S₄) can foster intercultural competence (S₁₁), and successful innovation and entrepreneurship require that engineering talent have a broad vision and thinking, so as to discover the development opportunities inside and outside the industry and analyze market feasibility in order to take action and obtain a head start. On the other hand, intercultural competence (S₁₁) can cultivate their global mindset, allow them to grasp international development trends, find potential development opportunities by constantly strengthening their own innovative and entrepreneurial thoughts and awareness, integrate new ideas and new models into engineering practice, and improve entrepreneurial competence (S₄). The developmental needs of Industry 4.0 and China’s construction strategy require engineering talent with lifelong learning abilities (S₅) to struggle continuously, take the international advanced level as the standard, continuously improve the quality and level of their work, and enhance professional ethics (S₉) [7]. In turn, because of the influence of professional ethics (S₉), it inspires engineering talent to catch up with the advanced level, vow to improve international competitiveness in China’s construction industry through continuous learning, and enhances their lifelong learning abilities (S₅). In addition, lifelong learning abilities (S₅) help engineering talent absorb and master a lot of new knowledge, new ideas, and new experiences, so that they can achieve intercultural competence (S₁₁) to a certain extent, which grows their problem-solving abilities. The existence of intercultural competence (S₁₁) enables engineering talent to refresh their knowledge from other disciplines and constantly discover new questions, which is conducive to forming the good habit of active learning and enhancing their lifelong learning abilities (S₅). Professional ethics (S₉) and patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀) are the expressions of professional behaviors and tread different paths that lead to the same destination. At the same time, professional ethics (S₉) are also the expression of vocational responsibility—fostering responsibility for working achievements and the natural environment. Excellent working achievements achieved using noble professional ethics can bolster international reputation for the country and improve national self-confidence and national pride, so as to deepen the sense of identity and belonging of engineering talent to the country, cultivating patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀). Looking from the other side, patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀) are considered responsible for the country and society, which can encourage engineering talent to work hard, stimulate centripetal force and cohesion, and construct internationally competitive super engineering with excellent achievements and engender occupational pride in engineering talent to possess and improve professional ethics (S₉). Intercultural competence (S₁₁) can broaden the horizon of engineering talent and cultivate an international mindset and an international consciousness. Contact with many successful and failed cases of international construction projects makes them deeply understand the relationships between the success of construction projects and strong national strength, stimulating a strong sense of national pride, generating patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀), and giving them the will to bravely carry the responsibilities of the times. Patriotic and collective (S₁₀) engineering talent will carry out innovative practices and explore the market for urgent and difficult engineering problems in accordance with the practical needs of China’s future development and the transformation and upgrading of the construction industry, actively enhancing entrepreneurial competence (S₄) in terms of seeking the best comprehensive utilization of industrial solid waste. Furthermore, they will develop green buildings to reduce carbon emissions and protect the natural environment [127].

Professional knowledge (S₁) includes the systematic education of professional norms. Professional ethics cultivated by such profound professional knowledge enable engineering talent to consciously abide by laws, regulations, and industry norms and fulfill social responsibilities in engineering practice. The improvement of professional ethics guides engineering talent to keep up with the forefront of industry development to a certain degree, allowing them to grasp the demands of the construction market and the dynamic information of new construction products. It also enables them to actively learn emerging technologies and knowledge, cultivate lifelong learning abilities (S₅), and continuously update their knowledge structure and knowledge reserves in order to seize competitive advantages [128]. In addition, under the influence of professional ethics, engineering talent with deep professional knowledge (S₁) take the initiative in learning about emerging technologies and knowledge, improve the quality and efficiency of engineering projects, seize opportunities for career development, and bolster their reputation and reputation for Chinese architecture via the implementation of the national strategic deployment of the Belt and Road. While winning reputation and reputation for Chinese architecture, it also brings honor to themselves, making them more aware that the national development strategy goal is a large stage for individual self-development. Only by inspiring patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀) and constantly keeping pace with national development can we achieve greater results [129]. Professional knowledge (S₁) helps engineering talent expand their knowledge structure to other related fields and cultivate interdisciplinary literacy via discipline integration. Through this process, new knowledge and methods outside of the discipline have broadened their thinking spaces, enabling them to acquire market demand information from the perspective of development, break through professional restrictions, transplant and graft advanced and successful experience from other professional fields to solve complex engineering problems, and carry out collaborative innovation and entrepreneurial practice with the advantage of interdisciplinary integration, effectively enhancing entrepreneurial competence (S₄) [130]. Engineering thinking (S₃) enables engineering talent to master the methods and tools to create new ideas and career opportunities. With the development of information technology, methods and tools iterate more quickly and innovative and entrepreneurship activities occur more frequently day by day. In order to improve the effect of innovation and entrepreneurship activities, engineering talent should keep up with the development trends of domestic and foreign industries, conform to the laws of the market, and cope with fierce competition through continuous learning and growth, which strengthens their lifelong learning abilities (S₅) [131]. Engineering thinking (S₃) can help engineering talent analyze and grasp the essence of complex engineering problems and make decisions related to engineering project management with the help of engineering mathematics. When they face crises and emergencies, engineering thinking (S₃) enables them to give full play to their leadership with an inclusive and open mind, as well as organize and coordinate groups with different interests and different consciousnesses to develop team power and deal with complex engineering problems. The more complex the project, the more we need engineering talent with open minds and intercultural competence (S₁₁), so as to be good at finding favorable factors to finish the engineering project with high quality [132]. Engineering thinking (S₃) can help engineering talent analyze complex engineering problems via engineering mathematics and continuously improve solutions based on the actual situations in the process of solving problems. It can also encourage engineering talent to constantly reflect on and improve the methods, tools, and implementation processes based on rational thinking; examine whether their behaviors conform to engineering codes; adopt advanced industry levels and national regulations as the standard; stick to the professional ethics (S₉); strive for excellence; and finally, solve complex engineering problems [133,134]. At the same time, those with engineering talent should examine and reflect upon the impact of their work and achievements on nature and society according to the practical conditions of engineering, uphold a strong sense of social responsibility, comply with national policies and regulations, persist in green construction and civilized construction, and prioritize the interests and needs of the people and promote patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀) [135].

Emerging engineering education promotes the integration of multiple disciplines, which gives modern engineering the comprehensive attributes of humanity, service, economy, and society. Interdisciplinary competence (S₂) in emerging engineering education can improve the comprehensive coordination abilities and organizational abilities of engineering talent in terms of resources, manpower, and time, which are direct manifestations of leadership. With the deepening of the industrial revolution and the construction of emerging engineering education, those with engineering talent need to continuously improve their leadership ability to cope with more complex engineering problems. This encourages them to have intercultural competence (S₁₁) to learn, absorb, and learn from the knowledge, methods, and tools inside and outside the discipline with a broad mind and open mind [136], coordinate with different cultures, consciousnesses, and demands, and integrate various favorable factors to complete engineering projects with high quality and efficiency, so as to effectively implement the “go global” strategy of China and make Chinese architecture famous at home and abroad. In the 21st century, knowledge changes and updates rapidly, and interdisciplinary competence (S₂) inspires engineering talent to learn new knowledge and methods in interdisciplinary fields with enthusiasm. The awareness and habits of active learning not only form lifelong learning abilities but also enable them to fully understand the future development trend of the world and the strategic deployment of China’s construction, clearing their own responsibilities and missions, which encourages them to continue to learn advanced technologies and methods, obey the rules of science, continuously improve the quality and level of work, and ultimately improve professional ethics (S₉) [137]. Practical ability (S₆) refers to actual operation ability and practical ability, which is the ability of engineering talent to complete engineering projects in accordance with engineering codes and standards. The stronger the practical ability, the more standardized the engineering behavior, the more accurate the work results, and the higher the professional ethics. It will also enable engineering talent to further deepen their understanding of the impact of engineering projects on society and the environment, cultivate a strong sense of social responsibility and historical mission, and establish patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀) [138]. In addition, due to the continuous improvement of professional ethics, the expectation of their future development is also constantly improved, which inspires the ambition of engineering talent to catch up to an advanced level, with the hope of improving their own technical level and work effectiveness through continuous learning [139]. Cultivate lifelong learning abilities (S₅) to build internationally competitive engineering projects. Leadership (S₇) requires engineering talent to have a broad vision, especially international engineering talent, who should have a cross-border vision and be good at using knowledge, methods, and tools inside and outside of their respective disciplines to coordinate and manage groups with different nationalities, classes, and development needs, so as to broaden the engineering concept and form divergent thinking. By learning and drawing on advanced experience at home and abroad, engineering talent constantly explore methods and tools to solve complex engineering problems, form independent intellectual property rights, and thus foster entrepreneurial competence (S₄) [140]. Conversely, improving entrepreneurial competence (S₄) can open up cross-border vision, help engineering talent actively analyze various market demands inside and outside of the construction industry with an open mind, screen effective information, identify business opportunities, and formulate feasible implementation plans [124,141]. In the process of project implementation, leadership (S₇) has been significantly improved through multi-dimensional training in business operations such as project financing, market development, team building, and financial management. Superb leadership (S₇) is derived from numerous engineering practice training. The higher the leadership ability, the broader the cross-field vision. Furthermore, it also enables engineering talent to have the opportunity to use more fresh knowledge beyond the field to solve complex engineering problems through learning, absorbing, and transplanting external successful experiences, which hones their lifelong learning abilities (S₅) [142]. On the contrary, lifelong learning abilities (S₅) help engineering talent learn and understand new knowledge, new methods, and new tools, effectively expanding their cross-border vision, enriching their ideas for solving engineering problems, and enabling them to continuously improve their leadership (S₇) through practical training, integrating different forces, and coordinating different needs of various stakeholders in the concrete implementation process [143]. With the increase in and expansion of the number and scale of experienced projects, leadership (S₇) will be effectively improved, enabling engineering talent to accumulate rich practical and cross-border experience, further broadening their horizons and thinking. Especially in international project management, engineering talent can deeply feel the relationships between the success of the project and the strength of the country via contact with numerous successful and failed international engineering cases, which is helpful in stimulating their strong national self-esteem and pride, cultivating a sense of patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀) that aims to make China a powerful country in terms of architecture [144]. Critical thinking abilities (S₈) help engineering talent examine and reflect on whether their own behavior conforms to engineering codes and building regulations in the process of engineering practice, allowing them to critically look at problems in a complex engineering environment and improve and adjust professional behavior according to changes in real situations. Talent with critical thinking abilities always uphold core socialist values and consciously abide by professional ethics, and their thoughts are further sublimated in the progress of improving professional ethics, so as to have higher spiritual needs and career planning. At the same time, they expect their value to be realized and expect their work achievements to be recognized, which stimulates their enthusiasm to learn advanced technology and knowledge in order to catch up to an advanced level, while also adhering to the ideal of cultivating lifelong learning abilities (S₅) [145,146]. Critical thinking abilities (S₈) help engineers reflect on the impact of their engineering behaviors on the natural environment and social development and examine the relationships between their own development and national needs, making it clear that only by devoting themselves to national construction can they realize their dreams, and thus, this consciously establishes a sense of mission in terms of social progress and economic development as well as a sense of responsibility in protecting the interests of the country and the people. In working practice, critical thinking abilities (S₈) enable them to improve their capabilities in accordance with the realistic needs of China’s future development and the transformation and upgrading of the construction industry, with a focus on current urgent and difficult engineering problems to carry out innovation and entrepreneurship practices and explore green ecological, low-carbon, and environmentally friendly production methods, such as recycling construction waste. Then, via the continuous improvement of entrepreneurial competence (S₄), it helps upgrade traditional construction methods and improve the economic benefits of the construction industry [147].

To have entrepreneurial competence (S₄), engineering talent need to keep up with the development tendencies of industries at home and abroad and constantly learn and renew their knowledge of market analysis, technological innovation, teamwork, and project operation based on market rules, so as to recognize opportunities and implement viable plans in the context of fierce market competition. In this process, engineering talent are required to carry forward the spirit of bearing hardships and enduring hard work, uniting colleagues to complete the task with high quality and efficiency, which reflects good professional ethics (S₉) [148]. On the contrary, good professional ethics (S₉) drives those with engineering talent to constantly endeavor, struggle, and challenge themselves. Moreover, it enables them to take the initiative and take responsibility in the critical part of the business, such as continuous learning to supplement the necessary new knowledge and technology to carry out practical innovation and use the cooperative platform of enterprises–universities–research institutions to constantly try and improve, which trains entrepreneurial competence (S₄) while solving engineering problems [149]. Lifelong learning abilities (S₅) help engineering talent constantly renew and perfect their knowledge structure and understand the development tendency of the construction industry and future planning of Chinese architecture, making them set clear career goals and pioneer and improving the quality of the project. If sound professional ethics and national strategy are integrated, the importance of project quality will rise to a national height and excellent engineering projects will become the name card of the “go global” strategy of Chinese architecture, which is conducive to inspiring national pride and confidence in engineering talent, fostering patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀). Conversely, engineering talent who are nurtured by patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀) have high ideological and ethical qualities. After ideological and political education, it will be manifested into noble professional ethics, devotion, and excellence, which gives engineering talent the motivation to persist in learning and improve work quality continuously, allowing them to possess lifelong learning abilities (S₅) [150]. Professional ethics (S₉) trigger endogenous motivation in engineering talent to improve themselves and enable them to actively learn the required knowledge and master the methods and tools that are good for self-improvement. The continuous deepening and extension of learning helps engineering talent deeply understand the ideas and solutions required to solve the similar problems outside of their discipline, which promotes the formation of intercultural competence (S₁₁) [151]. In return, due to their exposure to fresh knowledge outside of their discipline, engineering talent with intercultural competence (S₁₁) often take the initiative in learning content they are interested in so that they can understand the landmark projects and representative personages in all walks of life. Through a comparison process, this inspires their determination for an accomplished career and to continuously improve their level of work with good professional ethics (S₉) [91,152]. Improving entrepreneurial competence (S₄) can further open up the cross-border vision of engineering talent so that they can discover development opportunities inside and outside of the industry, especially in terms of the national development trend. Furthermore, their primary energy should be focused on solving engineering problems that require urgent solutions, for which their self-development will be achieved via the realization of national strategies and their patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀) will be cultivated. Engineering talent with patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀) always take national rejuvenation as their own responsibility [153,154], pay high attention to complex engineering problems that restrict the achievement of national strategies, and hope to solve practical problems through carrying out innovative and entrepreneurial practice. In the face of fierce competition, they develop their intercultural competence (S₁₁), absorb the positive factors of various industries with international thinking, and complete high-quality engineering projects [155,156].

Due to the characteristics of low driving power and high dependence power of dependent factors, the change and development of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent in the root layer and the intermediate layer will directly or indirectly change the cultivation effect of core competencies in the direct layer. Therefore, attention should be given to strengthening competencies in the root layer and the intermediate layer. At the same time, it should also be noted that the core competencies of emerging engineering talent in the direct layer is a direct manifestation of the goals of emerging engineering education. It is also very important to evaluate the effectiveness of talent cultivation via the degree of completion of these competencies, so as to adjust the cultivation orientation and content of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent in the root layer and the intermediate layer according to the correlation paths.

In this paper, ISM was used to determine the hierarchical structure model of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent and MICMAC was used to calculate the driving power and dependence power of core competencies, which are divided into four categories. After classifying the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, this paper explained the characteristics and functions of four factors, verified the rationality of the ISM hierarchy according to the classification, further analyzed the correlation paths between factors of different categories and the same categories, clarified the mechanism of action and reaction between the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, and determined correlation paths of cultivating the core competencies of emerging engineering talent. Equipping emerging engineering talent with core competencies to cope with the future industrial transformation is one of the targets of construction of emerging engineering education, and the formation of core competencies is also one of the goals of talent cultivation. After clarifying the goals, we can grasp the relationships and function routes between each goal, and, according to the direction of the correlation paths and the position of training objectives of each core competence in the entire functional path, it can clearly guide the direction of developing the practice training of emerging engineering talent and improve some important nodes purposefully, so as to achieve better results of personnel training. The hierarchical structure and correlation paths obtained by this study provide scientific theoretical support and a research basis for the practical exploration of talent training in the construction industry and other industries.

6. Conclusions, Limitations, and Future Research Agenda

Based on the literature review and the Delphi method, this paper extracted the framework of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, then used the integrated ISM–MICMAC approach to determine the hierarchical structure and correlation paths between the core competencies of emerging engineering talent and analyzed the interactional principle between the core competencies of emerging engineering talent. By systematically analyzing the correlation paths and mutual relationships between the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, this study provides theoretical guidance for the construction of emerging engineering education. These findings are helpful in formulating strategies for educational practices based on the core competencies of emerging engineering talent and effectively improve the training effect of emerging engineering education talent. Through the integrated ISM–MICMAC approach, 11 core competencies of emerging engineering talent were obtained by combining the research results of existing theoretical analysis and educational practice. Through the research, we found that the driving factors “professional knowledge (S₁)” and “engineering thinking (S₃)” are at a low position in the ISM hierarchy, indicating that they have the greatest impact on the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, especially from the perspective of strategic decision making and strategy implementation. At the same time, the dependent factors “entrepreneurial competence (S₄)”, “lifelong learning ability (S₅)”, “professional ethics (S₉)”, “patriotism and collectivism (S₁₀)”, and “intercultural competence (S₁₁)” occupy the highest position in the ISM hierarchy, indicating that they are the direct expression of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, that is to say, cultivating emerging engineering talent with the above five core competencies is the direct goal of emerging engineering education in China. Special attention should be paid to tracking these indicators in order to determine whether the training effect of emerging engineering talent has achieved the desired results. If not, corrective measures will be raised to continuously deepen the penetration of the core competencies of emerging engineering talents. Combining the background of the construction industry, this paper determined the core competencies’ training objectives of emerging engineering talent and found the primary effect of professional knowledge and engineering thinking, emphasizing that the educational practice and educational reform for emerging engineering talent should focus on the central idea of emphasizing “professional foundation and practical ability”; the clear correlation paths provide effective theoretical support for producing a scientific scheme of educational practice, which is based on the requirements of the country and the market in different periods and is able to improve the cultivation effect of the core competencies of specific emerging engineering talent in a targeted manner.

This study also has certain limitations: (1) The selection of some core competencies in the study was affected by subjective factors regarding the respondents and experts, which may have also affected the accuracy of subsequent ISM modeling and MICMAC analysis. Due to the limitations of the conditions, the number of samples could not be further increased. In the follow-up study, the scope and the sample size of a questionnaire survey will be further expanded. (2) While the study confirmed correlation paths and mutual relationships between the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, it did not attempt to quantify the strength of these relationships because the method adopted in this paper cannot calculate the specific values of the strength of the interaction between the correlation paths; this may be validated by using structural equation modeling (SEM) in future studies. Adding mediating variables will improve the overall effect. (3) The objective of the study was to analyze the construction industry, and the experts who were consulted also came from the same industry. In order to support the findings of this study on a larger scale, more settings and data may be used in future analysis.

7. Recommendations

As an important measure to cope with the era development and the technological revolution, the construction of emerging engineering talent has a great impact on improving the quality of engineering education in China. In the process of construction of emerging engineering education, combining the construction of emerging engineering talent with the cultivation of core competencies is more conducive to fostering all-round and high-quality engineering talent. Therefore, it is essential to proactively establish a government-guided, business-supported, and university-led model of cooperation among government, industry, and academia, cooperate with local governments to increase the participation and support of associated enterprises in talent training, guide local industries to engage deeply in the entire process of setting educational goals, constructing curriculum systems, designing practical teaching, and evaluating talent quality, as well as integrating professional teachers, students, and local industries into the construction and development of emerging engineering education. Ultimately, it creates a diverse and collaborative education model via the integration of production and education, actively adapting to the demands of industrial development in the new era and effectively improving the cultivation effect of the core competencies of emerging engineering talent, such as practical ability and entrepreneurial competence. In the collaborative education process between schools and enterprises, the government should provide relevant policy support and supervision, guide school–enterprise cooperation to produce more positive effects, and introduce corresponding policies to actively attract international teaching staffs helping to expand students’ international perspectives. The government also needs to improve the quality evaluation system referring to core competencies, provide guidance to teachers for targeted teaching improvements, promote the cultivation and development of students’ core competencies, and finally, boost the continuous development of the training model of emerging engineering talent, which contributes to setting up China’s engineering education to lead the world.