A student-led approach to personal and professional development: a case study of a level 9 module in professional development and effectiveness for graduate engineers

This paper presents a case study of a module which aims to integrate academic learning and ‘real world’ professional experience in a manner that is personally relevant to each individual student. The ‘Professional Development and Effectiveness’ module is offered to part-time and full-time students on a number of Level 9 Engineering programmes in an Institute of Technology.The delivery of the module involves a number of interactive classroom sessions designed to provide students with a set of theoretical tools with which to analyse and reflect on, understand and learn from practical experiences in the workplace. With the help of thesetools, students are required to work independently to analyse their own past and current professional practice and to identify key strengths and weaknesses in that practice, then to construct and implement individual professional development plans to enhance future practice. The students’ experiences at the various stages of this process (analysis of current practice, creation and implementation of development plans and evaluation of progress) are recorded using learning logs and reflective writing exercises which constitute the assessed component of the module.This module provides students with both tools with which and a space in which to reflect on their personal professional practice and to take control of their own professional development. The classroom sessions are discursive in nature and allow for flexible exploration of concepts and theories which can be used in the practice of development planning and evaluation. While the structure for the assessed work is common to all students, the content of this work (ie the development areas chosen) is entirely flexible and is negotiated between the lecturer and each individual student as part of an ongoing process of one-to-one interaction, conducted mainly in the virtual learning environment, that continues for the duration of the module.