Evaluating the Impact of Industry Educational Partners in the TEC21 Model: Real-World Challenges for Engineering Students

Challenge-based learning is a learning methodology in which students learn in a real-world context, tackling real problems and tasks proposed by themselves or by some companies. This type of learning offers an efficient and effective framework for learning while solving real-world challenges.The challenges help students gain in-depth knowledge of thesubject and develop the skills needed to thrive in an ever-changing world. The TEC21 Model from Tec de Monterrey is designed to provide a comprehensive education and to increase thecompetitiveness of students in their professional field through the development of their student outcomes. One of the keycomponents of the model is Real Challenges, where the student is actively involved in a relevant problem situation provided byeducational partners who work to develop the student's skills. This paper aims to investigate whether real challenges from educational partners improve the educational experience of engineering students compared to a traditional curriculum. The outcomes of the first two generations of graduates from 3 programs, B.S. in Computer Science, and Information Technologies (ITC), B.S. in Industrial Engineering (IIS) andB.S. in Mechatronics Engineering (IMT) demonstrate a clear pattern indicating that the model based on real challenges and the participation of educational partners is positive, with rates above 78% of employability after three months.