Evaluation of an Alternative Industrial Work Experience Programme For Final-Year Undergraduate Engineering Students During The COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly hampered the ability of higher education institutions (HEIS) to place interns for traditional on-site work experiences and forced these institutions to quickly find alternative cooperative education arrangements for their students. This placement challenge led to the development of an innovative alternative Industrial Work Experience (IWE) programme for final-year engineering students at the University of Technology, Jamaica. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of the alternative IWE programme implemented during the pandemic and to explore viable alternative engineering cooperative education practices that can be implemented by HEIs in the post-pandemic era. The study used an Inductive-Simultaneous Mixed Method Investigation design with an online survey instrument consisting of 28 closed-ended questions and six open-ended questions that collected quantitative and qualitative data concurrently. A total of 67 invitations were administered by email and WhatsApp over a period of 18 days with a 43.3% (n=29) response rate. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, the qualitative data were analysed using an inductive thematic approach. The point of integration occurred at the analysis stage. Results show that the most valuable aspects of the alternative assessment were design skills (72.2%) and teamwork (38.9%). Of the respondents, 43.5% highlighted that the experience fostered collaboration and empowerment. The major challenges highlighted were a lack of exposure to the actual work environment by 55.0% of the respondents and working with team members (45.5%). Although seventy-two (72.0%) of the participants obtained employment after completing the alternative IWE, only 51.6% were employed within their respective engineering disciplines. The findings of this paper will inform HEIs, prospective interns, industry and other stakeholders of some of the advantages and disadvantages of the alternative IWE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]