Durham University
Programme and Module Handbook

Undergraduate Programme and Module Handbook 2024-2025

Module ENGI3976: Engineering Placement Year

Department: Engineering

ENGI3976: Engineering Placement Year

Type Tied Level 3 Credits 120 Availability Available in 2024/2025 Module Cap None. Location Durham
Tied to

Prerequisites

  • None

Corequisites

  • None

Excluded Combination of Modules

  • None

Aims

  • To provide the experience of working in an industrial environment as complementary to academic study.
  • To enable students to acquire transferable skills, to develop personally, and to enhance their employability with the placement provider or otherwise, upon graduation.

Content

  • This will be determined in agreement with the placement provider. Content will usually focus on involvement in research and development or technical projects. More business-focused experience and activity may be approved but sufficient engineering content is mandatory.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:
  • Increased knowledge and understanding of the industrial environment, as distinct from the academic, and of the hierarchies, routines, pressures, and disciplines of this environment.
  • Increased knowledge of the specific engineering techniques involved in the placement, and of their practical application.
Subject-specific Skills:
  • An enhanced ability to work independently or in a team, as appropriate to the placement.
  • An enhanced ability to work on both technical and non-technical tasks, and with non-technical colleagues.
Key Skills:
  • Increased confidence in the ability to work in different environments and to assume personal responsibility.
  • An ability to manage one's affairs and time, and to be assessed within an industrial environment.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

  • Pre-placement briefing in order to prepare the student for the industrial environment and the nature of the placement.
  • Regular contact with a placement advisor during the placement to help the student assess the on-going value of the placement and the skills acquired including one site visit by the placement advisor, where this is reasonably practical.
  • Post-placement debriefing to help the student assess the final value of the placement and reflect on the skills acquired.
  • Assessment via a A1 poster on the placement.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Activity Number Frequency Duration Total/Hours
Pre-placement briefing 1 60 minutes 1
Placement, including meetings with placement advisor 1 40 weeks 1198
Post-placement debriefing and questionnaire 1 60 minutes 1
Total 1200

Summative Assessment

Component: Coursework Component Weighting: 100%
Element Length / duration Element Weighting Resit Opportunity
Satisfactory completion of the placement as evidenced by an A1 poster on the placement [Pass / Fail] A1 Poster 100% None

Formative Assessment:


Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University