Murray, M; Ross, A; Blaney, N and Adamson, L (2015) Mentoring undergraduate civil engineering students. Proceedings of Institution of Civil Engineers: Management, Procurement and Law, 168(4), pp. 189-198. ISSN 17514304
Abstract
On enrolment at university, undergraduate civil engineering students begin their journey towards a professional career. Associating with graduate engineers throughout their studies provides students with potential role models and assists them to accustomise progressively to the industry. While the procurement of guest practitioners to deliver workshops and lectures remains buoyant, opportunities for students to secure summer placements within the civil engineering sector has been problematic since the 2008 financial crisis. Graduate mentoring of student mentees can help to bridge the shortage of vocational placements. This paper discusses the results from a graduate mentoring initiative involving third-year (N = 345) civil and environmental engineering student mentees, 83 graduate mentors and 31 employers. The results show that the student mentees overwhelmingly support and validate the opportunities that this initiative has provided. On completion of their mentoring meetings, and on return to the fourth year of their studies, the majority of the students commit to making behavioural and attitudinal changes regarding their own continued professional development.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | business; corporate responsibility; education & training |
| Index terms: | summer, undergraduate, workshop, enrolment, role model, professional development, environmental engineering, engineer, practitioner, mentors, career, mentoring, corporate responsibility, placement |
| Subjects: | business, profession, professional development, management, environmental engineering, sociology, recruitment and enrolment, practitioner, climate science, construction type, curriculum development, training |
| Topics: | Human Resources, Information Management, Governance, Construction Technology, Roles and Professions, Education, Sustainability |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here