The Future of The Consulting Engineer Industry through futures studies, Covid 19 lessons learned Mahdi Razi Khosroshahi, Iran President at Young Professional's Council of Iranian Society of Consulting Engineers, Market Development Manager at Rahab Consulting Engineers, Water Resources Management Engineering (M.Sc.), Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran Soheil Alerasoul, Iran Vice President at Iranian Society of Consulting Engineers, CEO at Rahab Consulting, Business Administration (PhD), American Liberty University, Structural Engineering (M.Sc.), Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran Kaveh Heshmati, Iran Member of FIDIC Future Leaders Committee (FLC), Structural Engineer at SANO Consulting Engineers, PhD researcher in Structural Engineering, University of Bath, United Kingdom Structural Engineering (M.Sc.), Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
In December 2019, a resident of Wuhan, China faced a mysterious illness which was the beginning of a global pandemic that has changed humans’ lives in most countries across the globe so farxxiii. After the global outbreak of the coronavirus, wise futurism in any profession seems necessary more than anytime. As components of deconstruction have altered powerful industries and human systems, it is vital to evaluate the situation in this regard. Moreover, modelling future conditions make it possible to achieve the desired scenario with ill-advised behaviours. In this paper, a general review is provided on the impact of a couple of unpredictable events and their subsequent impact on the economy. The future status of the consulting engineer's profession is discussed using the data related to future studies. The topic is evaluated through the case study which compares age pyramid and engineering graduates in Iran. In the first step; any systematic move, needs access to reliable statistics. Lack of reliable statistics is one of the existing shortcomings in any future studies not only in Iran but globally. To assess the future of engineering-related professions, there is a need to have access to important statistics across various different factors such as university graduates, labour market, and budget, microeconomic and macroeconomic policies. According to currently available observations in Iran, there is a huge gap between the labour market and the number of graduates that makes the future of engineering-related professions uncertain. Besides, the Covid-19 pandemic has threatened civil engineering projects drastically and make the situation worse than normal situation. As we have seen over the past few months, some sectors are disproportionately impacted compared to others such as tourism industry and restaurants, which in some cases are at the risk of extinction. Whereas, industries based on online ordering and communications have been less affected and in some cases have managed to grow during the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, statistical review is necessary, and indeed, is the first step to consider the threats for consulting engineering industry.
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