Sophie is taking a Vocational GCSE course in Engineering. Her Community School has a strong culture of business links, and all pupils in Year 10 have two weeks of work experience.
The Design and Technology Faculty believes that work experience is an effective way of enabling students to fulfil specific requirements of the course syllabus. It has also become evident over time that a placement is more focused and successful when clearly linked to the taught curriculum.
Engineering students are expected to build their work experience around a specific project or set of activities that links with units from their course. In order to do this, Sophie’s class consults a portfolio of projects developed by Trident from Edexcel and the Education Business Group West of England. They are given time during tutor periods to plan and prepare for their placement, using the Connexions Work Experience Certificate Log Book and Progress File: ‘Moving On’.
Having chosen her projects, Sophie contacts a possible employer by writing to the Human Resources department, which she follows up a week later with a phone call. A placement is arranged in principle, Sophie fills in the appropriate paperwork for health and safety, and her parents authorise the placement.
Sophie makes an appointment with the company’s Computer Aided Design (CAD) Director to discuss the projects.
It is agreed that she will investigate the following topics:
For Unit 1: What external considerations have influenced any of the designs undertaken by the company?
- Is there any legislation to be considered?
- Do any green issues influence the design?
- Is any anthropometric data used?
- Is any psychological data used, for example, use of colour for mood setting, position of instrumentation and warning indicators for optimum human reaction?
For Unit 3: How are computers used in the modelling of products?
- The development and modelling of products currently in place.
- Who is involved in product development .
- Why prototype modelling is so important in the product or service.
The host company chooses a mentor for Sophie to work with and report to during her placement. After the placement the mentor writes a brief report on Sophie’s role in the company and her achievements during the fortnight.
The Unit 1 project that Sophie has chosen has a cross-curricular benefit. It links with the Year 10 Citizenship specification, and so Sophie is able to use her learning on work experience to complete a unit of her Citizenship GCSE.
With thanks to Stuart Elston from Worle Community School for his help and support.