Addressing the UK-SPEC competence levels : challenges in programme design and delivery in a diversifying engineering HE sector

The UK-SPEC describes the respective competence levels that have to be met for professional registration as an Engineer or an Engineering Technician. At the level of Engineer, a further demarcation between competence levels, often less understood by the academic community, is in the designations Chartered Engineer and Incorporated Engineer. The UK-SPEC clearly sets out criteria which distinguish between the two categories. Background academic training plays an important part in the pathways leading to professional registration, and although not binding, academic qualifications that exemplify the required levels of knowledge and understanding for CEng and IEng registration are explicitly stated in the UK-SPEC. Higher level qualifications are the prime focus of HE sector engineering education providers as well as their clients, i.e. the students, in the context of a highly competitive recruitment setting. This paper recognises that a solid foundation of knowledge and understanding of core engineering principles and concepts is essential to further learning and continuity of progress. Based on this platform, gradual development of students' critical thinking and analytical ability to solve real engineering problems is the key to their future success towards innovation and progress as a practicing engineer. Thus intelligent curriculum design and imaginative delivery strategies are crucial to progressively build up confidence through core engineering subjects. The study draws attention to examples of effective use of state-of-the-art analytical software to enhance student learning experience and thereby develop valuable subject specific skills, and the use of project studies to develop a multitude of problem solving and transferable skills. Keywords; UK-SPEC, competence levels, curriculum design, subject specific skills, transferable skills, computer simulations