Assessing Skills Development Across The Undergraduate Degree Programme: An IEP Review – Biochemical Engineering

Ensuring technical competency has traditionally been at the centre of engineering pedagogy in university education, however with ever more increasing emphasis on the need for professional skills by accreditation bodies and employers, there have been pressures on the education system to address this. Communication and teamwork competencies have been shown to be the most highly coveted by employers and in 2014, the Integrated Engineering Programme (IEP) at UCL was designed to address the inclusion of professional skills development in the curriculum in the first year of undergraduate studies. However, what is not clear is whether these skills are transferred into 2^nd and 3^rd year. This study investigated this by interviewing members of staff in Biochemical Engineering responsible for modules where these skills form part of the learning outcomes. The results indicate that whilst there is a general consensus that presentation skills are well developed, issues still arise in 2^nd and 3^rd year with teamwork skills and possible contributing factors could be related to a lack of awareness of suitable team formation strategies. Further findings included changes in students’ perception of skills-based teaching as well as the need for sharing of best practice among IEP-related and non-IEP related staff alike.