A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

Engineering
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in a handbook, sectionalised for student, visiting tutor and industrial supervisor. The
university needs to provide channels of communications between all the partners.
• Health and safety. Universities need to consider the health and safety legislation
very carefully. Risks to students are minimised by ensuring that the employer
conforms to health and safety legislation. However, delegation of the procurement
of placements to other agencies does not release universities from their legal
responsibilities (CVCP, 1997).
• Preparing the student. Students need to be informed of the benefits of work
placements, the time-scale and methods of application and the normal requirements
of the workplace. Courses on writing CVs, application forms and interview techniques
are important. Visiting lectures by industrialist recruitment specialists and presentations
by careers staff and students returning from industry can all be useful.
• Maintaining contact with the student. Students should be encouraged to contact the
university to discuss problems and successes. In the workplace, students are best
supported by a visit from an academic member of staff. Students on placements might
be further supported by electronic means, either between staff and students, or
between peers.
• Assessment. Students gain most benefit from the placement if the formal assessment
process is clear. However, the novel and innovative nature of WBL requires that nontraditional
means are found for assessing it. Students need to be conscious of their
development and to be encouraged to assess their own progress. This may be assessed
via a portfolio or personal development diary. Students may be expected to support
their placement work and prepare for return to university with some academic study.
Many students in industry carry out project work and the project report may form a
part of the assessment.
Workforce development
In order to realise the UK’s higher skills agenda (Leitch, 2006), universities are considering
how to respond to the possibility that a proportion of HE funding could be delivered
through a demand-led mechanism, with employers having an influence on the content
of courses. It is hence increasingly important that engineering departments continue to
develop relationships with employers, possibly through Sector Skills Councils, and to
develop flexible modes of delivery. Engineering departments are looking to enhance their
capability and capacity to deliver innovative WBL solutions to support the skills agenda.
If targets for numbers with higher-level qualifications are to be met, then many
engineering lecturers may increasingly be delivering teaching within the workplace to
non-traditional students.
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
The requirements as set out by UK-SPEC and the QAA Benchmark Statement for
Engineering cover specific learning outcomes in engineering that should be demonstrated