This part-time, two-year Action Learning based programme offered by the CBS leads to University of Hertfordshire MSc AND to Chartered Engineer (CEng) status in a Professional Institute of the student’s choice (Institute of Civil Engineers, I.MechE. etc).  This unique combination is a very new initiative launched by the regulator of the engineering profession in the UK, the Engineering Council (EC UK).

Chartered Engineers (CEng) enjoy a title that is internationally recognised as a mark of excellence.  These elite professionals enjoy benefits such as improved career prospects, greater influence and enhanced professional status.  Today’s would-be Chartered Engineers in the UK must demonstrate learning at Masters level and meet defined UK-SPEC competences.  They must also have undergone a period of professional development, a time when they learn to apply their knowledge, understanding and judgement.  The MSc Professional Engineering programme is designed to help potential Chartered Engineers satisfy both these key requirements.

Barriers to Professional Status

Recent research has shown that many practising engineers are not achieving CEng status because they are unclear as to how to go about it and believe they will need to take time away from work to meet the further learning requirement.

The MSc Professional Engineering addresses these issues by offering step-by-step help in the achievement of UK-SPEC competences and enabling participants to demonstrate further learning through the achievement of employer approved company-based tasks.

The MSc Professional Engineering Approach

The MSc Professional Engineering approach includes:

Codifying the participants’ normal workplace activities in learning goals in such a way that their completion leads to the recognition of further learning at Masters Level;

Matching workplace achievement against UK-SPEC competences in a well-defined, step-by-step supervised way; and

Providing an academic supervisor and industrial mentor to make the journey to C.Eng more easily attainable.

The outcome is that participants can work confidently towards their further learning and C.Enga status without being away from the workplace and with an expectation of success.

How the Programme Works

The two-year, part-time programme is designed for 20 participants from a single organisation or from a consortium of 4/5 different organisations.

After enrolling, all participants undertake a Professional Development Audit (PDA) to define the scope of their individually tailored work-based Learning Contract.  This unique contract is then approved by the University as being of Masters Level.  With the support of their supervisor and mentor, the participant works to complete their  Learning Contract Goals, including a personal development plan (PDP) and reflective summary of their learning from the experiences gained on the programme.

The Professional Development Audit is a reflective assessment of the individual’s education, qualifications, experience and competences achieved to date.  The PDA is then matched against the UK-SPEC requirements to meet three objectives:

1. To determine the gap between the current competences and those required by the PEI/UK-SPEC.
2. As an aid to writing the remaining MSc Learning Contract goals; and
3. As a plan of how the candidate intends to meet the required competences.

If the expectation is that completion of the resulting Learning Contract will fall short of meeting UK-SPEC competence requirements, the candidate, who remains registered with the University, may transfer to a normal work-based learning MSc in Technology.

During their undertaking of this learning contract the participant will be registered as part-time students of University of Hertfordshire and hence have access to the learning resources of the University.  These will be enabled by remote access using the internet.  Participants will receive individual face-to-face and group tutorial sessions with their academic supervisor during workshop sessions.  Ongoing academic support between workshops will be available electronically.  In addition, each individual will be allocated a “professional supervisor” who will be a registered Chartered Engineer who will give regular face-to-face tutorials focusing on the engineering aspects of the programme.

In order to complete their learning contract goals participants will be required to take part in the following elements of the programme over the 2 years:

A series of 6 workshops focused on the learning process and how organisational excellence and leadership competence is achieved.  These workshops will be customised to the client’s industry, its markets, technology, processes and people strategies.

Several individual projects on how to improve the operational effectiveness of participants’ developments with particular reference to the technical processes and how to address the goals developed in the PDA.

A personal development plan (PDP) addressing the precise managerial competences needed in the participant’s role.  The focus will be on the participant’s job as the “laboratory of learning”.

A group project done by 4/5 participants who will analyse and solve a business-related problem identified by senior management as being a block on further organisational progress and weld themselves into a high performing team.

A masters dissertation addressing that will required participants to analyse in-depth a specific area of engineering related to their role in their company.

Company Benefits

In addition to providing a structured approach to C.Eng registration, the work-based learning approach leads to measurable returns to the company.  The group projects result in implementation after the solving of the problem identified by senior management.  The company’s receive 20 Business Improvement Plans from individual participants that will have led to improvements in the performance of individual departments.  In addition, significant improvements in individual managerial and leadership performance will result.

The programme results in heightened job satisfaction, making staff more valuable to their employer.  Having proven high-calibre engineering staff – who these days are much in demand – gives a business a significant commercial advantage.

The MSc Professional Engineering programme is extremely cost-effective.  It avoids the costs associated with key personnel being absent from work for extended periods; does not waste money, time or resources; and focuses the learning activity on company valued outcomes.

Entry Criteria

Entry to the MSc Professional Engineering normally requires the completion of an accredited BSc/BEng (Hons) Degree.  Those without such a degree, but with suitable industrial experience, may join the MSc subject to PDA assessment.

Assessment