Developing Essential Automation Engineer Skills Through Effective Mentorship

Why Engineering Mentorship is Essential for Workforce Growth

As the complexity of modern industrial facilities accelerates, systems integrators and engineering leaders are re-evaluating how they acquire and cultivate technical talent. Too often, organizations focus primary hiring efforts on finding fully formed mid-level talent, while overlooking the systemic labor shortage where critical integration projects stall or fail. Securing long-term project success requires addressing the talent shortage directly: the persistent scarcity of mid-career professionals capable of executing complex field installations. Closing this gap demands shifting focus away from traditional recruitment alone and toward a comprehensive workforce development strategy built around engineering mentorship.

In the article, “Have Experience? Willing to Travel and Learn in the Trenches?” published in Control Global, ACS Engineering Manager, Instrumentation and Controls, Eric Headington breaks down why so many integration firms struggle to fill automation engineering jobs. While digital tools advance rapidly, essential automation engineer skills still require extensive hands-on, onsite experience across installation, configuration, and commissioning. Automation expertise develops through real-world troubleshooting, fieldwork, and practical exposure to control systems—skills that cannot be replicated through software tools alone.

Beyond talent shortages, unstructured training presents a self-inflicted threat to project execution. When entry-level engineers are deployed without structured mentorship, learning curves steepen, and project risks multiply. Systems integrators like ACS mitigate these challenges by combining early internship programs with direct one-on-one mentorship, pairing emerging engineers with senior colleagues on active projects. Integrating self-paced learning on PLCs, AutoCAD, and control systems alongside regular postmortems transforms entry-level talent into capable professionals. This structured approach accelerates the development of critical automation engineer skills, ensuring candidates are fully prepared for high-demand automation engineering jobs and equipped with growing automation expertise.

To close the gap between academic preparation and real-world execution, decision-makers must prioritize long-term talent cultivation over quick-fix recruitment. While emerging technologies like AI in engineering will continue to reshape programming workflows, hands-on field experience remains non-negotiable for systems integration. By investing in engineering mentorship and hands-on field experience, organizations strengthen their technical workforce and ensure future engineers gain the practical skills needed to execute complex integration projects successfully.

Read the full article here.