Industrial Training as Gateway to Engineering Career: Experience Sharing

Today's engineering education demands in-depth theoretical knowledge as well as hands-on exposure to the profession. Traditionally, theoretical engineering education is achieved in campus through direct teaching and laboratory learning. However, hands-on exposure or real world confrontation provides engineering students with on-the-job experience. This helps them to decide whether their skills and industry are a good match. For specialised industries, such as manufacturing, aerospace and electronics, industrial training provides the opportunity for students to gain the most rewarding and enlightening working experience in related companies. This paper examines the industrial training experience gained by the students through a 12-week attachment period specifically looking at whether the companies have been successful in providing a relevant engineering workplace experience. A few industrial training experiences by students will be shared highlighting the positive and negative aspects. This study also suggests some steps that can be taken to ensure companies run industrial training programs that do meet the faculty's expectation.