Abstract:

Work placement plays a pivotal role in the development of engineering students, by further enhancing their technical knowledge and skills. By offering work placement as an integrated part of an engineering degree, students get to experience, first-hand, the different elements of engineering and get valuable exposure to different industry sectors. This experience allows the student to transfer and apply the knowledge gained during on campus learning in university, to the engineering tasks assigned to them whilst on placement. This experiential learning further prepares them for their future careers. In various engineering programmes work placement traditionally consists of three, six- or nine-month periods. Some engineering courses have evolved, enhancing the work placement duration to fifteen- and twenty-four-month periods.

Rethinking Engineering Education in Ireland (REEdI) is a collaboration between university and industry, with the intent of developing workplace experienced graduates. It is structured as a blended degree, with a duration of four-years equally divided between time spent in an academic setting and time spent in industry. The REEdI framework is initially being utilised in the development of a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) Degree in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at Munster Technological University (MTU). The collaborative design process was launched in June 2021 and completed in March 2022. The process consisted of 6 workshops with 14 companies representing 5 different manufacturing sectors. A requirement of the programme is that the industry partner provides a mentor to be the first point of contact for the REEdI student engineer to provide mentorship for all topics relating to the two-year work placement such as daily engineering tasks, project work and syllabus content review. From the workshop discussions industry expressed concerns on the role of the mentor in terms of expectations of time needed with students, being involved in the assessment of students and qualifications and level of experience needed to mentor students. Some of the participating industry partners have mentorship programmes in place in their organisation but there was some who don’t have anything in place.

To further evaluate this feedback from industry, the REEdI team conducted a study on how to provide mentorship training and resources to support industry mentors whilst students are in work placement. The REEdI team curated a specific set of questions for the industry partners aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of their needs. A survey was compiled and sent to the industry partners to gain further insight and collect data on how a mentorship programme should be structured. A host industry mentorship symposium was held to review the survey results and to expand the topics further. The results of this applied research will be used in the establishment of a REEdI mentorship framework, which will be delivered to all industry mentors assigned to student engineers in work placement, as part of the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering.

Keywords:

Mentorship framework, Work placement, Industry sectors, REEdI, Industry workshops, Higher education.