UPEI School of Sustainable Design Engineering gives students real job experience
Curriculum teaches students how to be professional engineers
UPEI's new School of Sustainable Design Engineering is giving students real-life work experience by tasking them with actual projects throughout the province.
Students in all years of the four-year program work with clients, including Parks Canada, on a variety of projects.
Third- and fourth-year students work specifically with industry clients, helping them solve a real problem facing their business.
Nicholas Krougliof, the school's associate dean, said the curriculum teaches students how to be professional engineers by thrusting them into working life long before they've graduated.
"Communication, team work, professionalism, ethics and equity … We have to be able to instill these attributes in our students," he said.
"The approach we're taking is the best way we feel we can instill professionalism in our students is to put them in a situation where they're working with a company, to give them really a competitive edge when they're entering the workforce."
Workforce Minister Richard Brown is scheduled to tour Allan Equipment Manufacturing, where third-year students are helping the company design a harvester that removes rocks from fields.