Abstract:

It has been recognised nationally and internationally, that work placement has many benefits for students as part of their technical and professional development potential during their higher education. Today, many University level courses facilitate work placement with built in periods of varying duration e.g. three, six and nine-month blocks.

Currently in developing is an undergraduate programme that sets out to further enhance the work placement experience for engineering students by co-design and co-development of an engineering curriculum that allows for remote eLearning and work placement to happen simultaneously. The programme will allow engineering students to be in-situ in university for the first two years of the programme. The next two years will have the students in-situ at the industry host location working on projects whilst also engaging in “just in time” learning from the programme curriculum via an adaptive eLearning platform.

This paper will outline the process by which we co-designed the work-based placement model. This includes how the project team planned and executed design workshops with industry partners to enhance collaboration, strengthen relationships and facilitate engineering students with significant work-based placement for a two-year period. Various topics were discussed including projects versus operational work, industry mentoring, curriculum contents, touch points throughout the student's placement, escalation strategies and roles and responsibilities of the student, the University and the Industry partner. To facilitate the process during the Covid-19 pandemic, the team engaged with industry partners in collaboration sessions using online tools such as the Miro platform. Techniques such as SWOT analyses was conducted to identify where current work placement models excel, where there are weaknesses, opportunities for improvement and indeed the threats that will be faced. Outputs from the workshops are currently being translated into a programme framework. Outputs for example include: Codes of practice, Industry handbooks, supporting resources including establishment of industry mentors network, Industry survey report and guidance document for industry mentors for feedback loop to programme team. Our work will systematically integrate work-based placement into our engineering degree ensuring industry requirements and student expectations are met while delivering a paradigm shift in engineering pedagogy.

Keywords:

Higher education, Student Work placement, Industry workshops, e-learning Platform, Miro platform.