This paper describes a model developed to prepare engineers for changing engineering environments. These changes in engineering enterprises include competition in increasingly global environments; new partnering opportunities caused by advances in information and communication technologies, and virtual collaboration issues associated with dispersed teams. To help address the challenges and needs in this environment, we propose a framework that can be customized and adapted by global enterprises. The model is designed to prepare engineers for a distributed collaborative environment by learning and applying e-engineering methods and tools to real-world engineering development scenarios. The model consists of two phases: an e-engineering basics phase and e-engineering application phase. The e-engineering basics phase addresses the skills required for e-engineering. The e-engineering application phase applies these skills in a distributed collaborative environment to system development projects. Details of a pilot study using this model are also described.