Course Outline

Thank you for agreeing to host one of our Level 3 Design Engineering students. I hope the information below helps you appreciate the potential value of this experience for our students.

In school, the two-year course prepares students by laying the foundation for a career in engineering. This includes a mix of theory and practical tasks with a focus on the skills required to apply knowledge and communicate effectively as part of a team in an employment environment.

We are delighted to be supporting this course and believe that the prominent involvement of engineering employers in its development has resulted in a qualification which appeals to students and develops skilled and enthusiastic candidates ready for employment.

Students in the first year of this vocational course are placed with an employer for one day per week for a total of eight weeks.

There are two main aims for the students during the work placement:

1. Experience the application of engineering knowledge and skills in the working environment and learn how their time in lessons is relevant to industry.

2. Meet, and exceed, the requirements of the course with regard to “meaningful employer involvement”. An outline and definition of this term can be found in Appendix B.

Students must successfully complete eight units to be awarded the full qualification (the complete list is shown in Appendix A). Units 1, 2, 4 and 5 are completed in the first year.

Links with the internship

Unit 4 (Engineering Design) is carried out alongside the student’s internship (details can be found in Appendix C and Appendix D) and, wherever possible, we would like each student to undertake a design task related to their placement. It would be greatly appreciated if your company could set a brief for the student to tackle during the term of their placement. We would like to have the brief in place a little before the start of the internship to allow student to familiarise themselves with the task and jot down any questions they have. The majority of the design activity will be carried out in lessons back at school between the days spent with your company. Nevertheless your expert input and advice as a ‘consultant’ for a short period each week would be an enormous benefit during the process. For example:

• Support with initial research such as customer; safety and legal requirements; material and component choices; manufacturing resources and process options etc)

• Evaluation of the student’s ideas as they develop

• Feedback on trials, tests and simulations of prototype solutions

• Expert appraisal of the student’s final solution

We will visit the student during their placement and will happily involve you in the assessment process if you would like.

Typically, the student can benefit from at least an hour each week working on their Engineering Design Unit in consultation with you or your colleagues. Importantly this means that you can utilise the majority of student’s internship time to provide an insight into your company’s business and the various engineering-related roles within your organisation.