This paper was presented at the 2008 Engineering Conference - Innovation Good Practice and Research in Engineering Education.
This paper discusses the issues for engineering academics as they consider how to respond to the government’s agenda for employer engagement and the possibility that a proportion of higher education (HE) funding could be delivered through a demandled mechanism with employers having an influence on the content of courses (Leitch 2006). Engineering departments are looking to enhance their capability and capacity to deliver innovative workbased learning (WBL) solutions to support the skills agenda (New Engineering Foundation 2007). If targets for numbers with higher level qualifications are to be met then many engineering lecturers may increasingly be delivering teaching within the workplace to nontraditional students.
