Servant, Dewar and Bøgelund (2020) 

As may positions, particularly blue-collar jobs, are threatened by automation, those who work these jobs need to retrain and reskill. This article focuses on men who chose to undertake engineering education as mature students. Within a Danish context the authors draw a complex portrait of the lived experience of these men. Using a qualitative Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method to analyse multiple interviews with each participant. The authors found a number of key themes, including baggage brought from a challenging youth, family traumas and educational failures; alienation and cynicism about the world – seeing their own possibilities for progress as limited; and difficulties with the content and process of the engineering curriculum. The authors also found that the men persisted as they believed engineering education to be a gateway to a better life and sense of social responsibility. The article concludes that a more pro-active support system would alleviate the difficulties faced by the participants and students like them. 

Read the full article here: 

Servant, V. F. C., Dewar, E. F., & Bøgelund, P. (2020). “I started this, and I will end this”: a phenomenological investigation of blue collar men undertaking engineering education as mature students. European Journal of Engineering Education.