The complex multidisciplinary challenges in our society require engineers who understand and can relate to specialists from other disciplines. Industry refers to these people as “T-shaped professionals”. They have enhanced, so-called 21st-century skills with a deep working knowledge in their specialism, are creative thinkers, can solve unstructured problems, think critically, collaborate and communicate in international intercultural teams, and have an attitude of lifelong learning. The T-shape is an important point of reference for many programmes of Delft University of Technology, also those in aerospace engineering. Increasingly university upper management becomes aware that the future world of work of an academic engineer demands different capabilities than 40 years ago. But with the ever increasing emphasis on science, and staff who is selected for their academic excellence, but have little or no practical engineering experience (failing CDIO Standard 9 Enhancement of Faculty CDIO Competence) the incorporation of more training in 21st-century skills in the curricula has become a serious barrier.
In the MSc in Aerospace Engineering the students concentrate on a specific field of expertise and learn to develop as independently-thinking, professionally-oriented, innovative engineers and researchers. At graduation the students have to be able to use their engineering skills in advanced industrial applications with little additional training. Authentic design, research and innovative engineering problems and questions in the life of an engineer are therefore identifiable subjects in the 2-year curriculum. In this respect one of the most valuable curricular elements is a 3-month fulltime industrial internship in the second year of study.
The internship is compulsory and enables the students to acquire professional skills different from those taught in the classroom. It is an effective implementation of an Integrated Learning Experience (CDIO Standard 7) and comprises the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge, personal and interpersonal skills, and product, process, and sometimes system-building capabilities. The preparation, planning and applications for the internship enforce all students to develop employability capabilities as well. It requires a high level of autonomy of the students who all have to step out of their comfort zone. The internship allows the students to experience and explore the professional environment, develop organisational sensitivity and make an active contribution to aerospace-related industries or research institutes. About 80 per cent of students take up a placement abroad, which adds to the international character of the programme.
The internship comprises a number of assignments to ensure the intended learning outcomes are attained. The main assignment is set by the host company. During the internship each student also completes a dedicated assignment about the engineering profession at the company, and makes a self-assessment and a personal reflection based on this self-assessment and feedback from the supervisor in the company. The professional assignment involves an exploration of how the host company meets specific professional standards.
The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate how an internship can be transformed from a period of work off campus into an effective integrated learning experience with rich learning outcomes. Many of the outcomes relate to key capabilities that each engineering student should have at graduation, to be prepared for the world of work and create the best chances for a successful career in the 21st century, such as employability, organisational sensitivity, intercultural communication, ethical accountability, professional responsibility and lifelong learning. The paper will show how we have implemented the internship, including its assignments and assessments with feedback from and to the students, so that it has a real impact on student development. It will describe how company feedback is fed into the education quality assurance cycle, and in what respect the internship stimulates the collaboration with industry in thesis, research and postgraduate training initiatives. Last but not least the paper will address the logistic challenge for the supporting staff and assessors to coordinate the planning, organisation and assessment of the 250-300 Master students per year who take an internship all over the globe, and how we organise the account management with more than 600 industrial companies who are key in providing the opportunities for our engineering students.
Proceedings of the 11th International CDIO Conference, Chengdu, China, June 8-11 2015