Ethiopia finds itself in the challenging position of building out its higher education infrastructure with the development of universities of applied sciences. This has resulted in the need for teaching methodologies and models appropriate for addressing industrial demands for applied learning. Three such models—research-based learning, project-based learning, and design-based learning—are described in this paper, and examples from the University of Porto illustrate their application in hands-on, practical instruction. These examples also demonstrate how the approaches can be combined to create a hybrid teaching method that addresses the interdisciplinarity of real-world engineering challenges. Instructional approaches such as this are required to move higher education—especially in STEM areas and in evolving institutions—closer to important sustainable development goals such as health and economic development.