The Teaching and Learning Unit will host a seminar ‘Developing Engineering Competencies in Industry for Undergraduates’ on Fri, 29 January 2021 from 10:00 – 13:00.
This seminar will present an innovative approach to enhancing engineering competencies through the parallel delivery of a capstone project and professional work placement elements in the final year of an undergraduate programme.
Register here.
Nationally, it is recognised that engineering students require more development of skills to be “culturally fit” engineering professionals. In order to achieve this, a longer placement was incorporated into CIT’s Chemical Engineering programme with this industrial interface being leveraged to identify capstone projects, hosted in industry, for students to complete in parallel with their placement. Thereby providing students with more industrial exposure and developing more “culturally fit” employable graduates with general and transferrable skills as well as the necessary engineering knowledge. Since the adoption of these industrially hosted modules a repeated review process, facilitated by CIT’s AnSEO – The Student Engagement Office, has allowed “fine-tuning” of the approach and provided an improved student experience. This review process creates a constructive environment in which individual student voices can be heard alongside those of faculty.
CIT has created an enhanced experiential learning experience for its final year students and provided a vehicle to pilot methods for student-staff collaboration supporting the shared refinement of both placement and the capstone project. The benefit to industry is a structured longer placement (in line with international policy) to develop “culturally-fit” graduates. The impact on student success is notable in that in excess of 90% employment levels have been observed in the graduate classes of 2018 and 2019. The student voice of their experiences substantiates the experiential and structured learning of these students.
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