Teacher PortalMechanical engineers work with the development, design, production, operation and maintenance of technical systems and products. The work involves understanding and using technical information, carrying out calculations, documenting results, communicating with other professionals and using digital tools.
Tasks vary between companies. Some work mainly with design and development, others with production, operations, quality or maintenance. The profile is about basic skills at work – participants may be highly competent professionals who still want to strengthen, for example, reading, writing or oral communication.
Norway officially defines five basic skills. Critical thinking is an additional competence area adopted by Prios. Tasks are typical examples, not mandatory requirements or fixed frequencies.
Understand, interpret and use written and visual information in technical work processes.
About the skillBasic AI literacy in a professional context – not engineering model development. AI is a supplementary topic, not an official basic skill.
AI and digital systems can support work with technical information, documentation and analysis. For mechanical engineers it can be relevant to understand how such tools work, what their limitations are and how their results can be critically assessed.
What AI support can and cannot do with technical documents and data.
Figures, units and explanations must be checked against reliable sources.
Technical and confidential data must not be shared with unauthorised services.
Exercise: Compare an AI summary with the source document and highlight differences.
Discuss: What does an automatically generated chart show – and what does it not show?
Exercise: Find a specific detail in a fictional digital document and explain where you found it.
Example: An AI answer gives the wrong unit. How do you spot it?
Learners read a fictional notice about an updated document, find the version, date and changes and pass them on. The case trains reading and communication – not technical approval of designs.
Learners interpret fictional measurement data, calculate a percentage change and check the result. The figures are fictional learning data, not equipment specifications.
Learners compare a fictional source document with an AI-generated sample summary that contains a wrong value. Static material – no AI service is used.
External resources
Occupational description from utdanning.no. Provides occupational context for teaching.
External resources
Explore how basic skills are used in different occupations.
Digital learning resources
Practise forms, checking and privacy without real personal data.
Teaching activities
Source criticism online: check sender, date and purpose before using or sharing information.
Digital learning resources
Evaluate whether AI-generated information is correct and relevant before using it at work.
The aim is to strengthen basic skills through familiar work tasks – not to teach participants their profession. Numeracy exercises focus on number sense, units and checking, not advanced engineering mathematics, and digital exercises are not CAD training.
Find out which concrete tasks participants carry out. Many are already skilled professionals.
Clarify where participants experience challenges in their working day.
Critical thinking and AI are supplementary Prios topics, not official basic skills.
In Kompetansepluss-funded training, objectives must be linked to eligible skills and relevant official learning goals.
Use the profile’s cases and resources as a starting point for workplace-oriented exercises.
Adapt the level and observe whether participants use the skills more confidently at work. The profile is not an occupational training course.