Designing for holistic learning opportunities: Reflections from the Engineering for People Design Challenge

The World Economic Forum's Global Risk Report in 2022 highlights the severe global risks in the next decade as; climate action failure, extreme weather events due to climate change, biodiversity loss, and the erosion of social cohesion. Mitigating these risks will require a transition in every industry, organisation and profession to imagine and create a better future together with civil society. Engineering is uniquely placed to help address global issues. We put forward that there is a need to prepare future engineers to adopt a mind-set of responsible and ethical practice into their skillset, in order to tackle today's various challenges. The need to create globally responsible engineers is great. Engineering education needs to prepare future engineers to adapt to an uncertain future. The Engineering for People Design Challenge, taught through a project-based learning pedagogy, has been completed by over 60,000 university students from over 40 universities. This program is currently run in partnership with Engineers Without Borders South Africa, and Engineers without Borders UK. During a pivotal moment in an undergraduate student's career, the Design Challenge encourages students to broaden their awareness of the social, environmental and economic implications of their engineering solutions. This paper aims to explore the affordances in learning that the Engineering for People Design Challenge provides participating students, with a focus on South Africa, by way of post-programme feedback from both students and academics who have implemented the Engineering for People Design Challenge in their courses.