Bridging the gap: University to professional qualifications

The jump from higher education to professional qualifications can be challenging. Engineering students do not necessarily leave university with the reflective and planning skills required for initial professional development (IPD). Many trainees do not understand IPD. These professional skills are not well covered in most UK universities. If this gap can be bridged then graduates may be more employable. This paper presents a case study where an IPD-style portfolio is used to assess the challenging breadth of the subject of sustainability with a large and diverse cohort of students. The details of the assessment, teaching methods and marking criteria are described and the challenges presented are discussed. Feedback was gathered from current students from the past 3 years, representatives of industry and the professional institutions. Ten companies were consulted including detailed interviews with recent graduates and senior engineers responsible for staff development and links to professional institutions. They were enthusiastic about the ideas presented in this work. This approach could be adopted widely throughout the university engineering curriculum. Professional institutions could consider how they might benefit from closer links with higher education. As professional institutions implement online systems for IPD they could consider ways to involve undergraduate students in the process.