Abstracts Engineering

Enhancing co-operative education through improved service delivery with reference to civil engineering technicians in training

by Brian Forbes

The education and training of civil engineering technicians is an integrated and dynamic process. The success of any service delivery process will be dependent on the meaningful interaction of all role players, given their understanding and commitment to desirable educational ideals and endeavours. With the rapid changes in technology and the arrival of democracy in South Africa, an ideal opportunity existed to review current practices and operational procedures, with a view to making some input toward restructuring. A review of service delivery strategies could make a positive contribution to improving the education and training of civil engineering technicians as well as improving the ideals of co-operative education. The purpose of the study was to analyse the service delivery strategies within the National Diploma in Civil Engineering course by examining the relationship between the views and expectations of students, academic staff and industry towards desirable leaming outcomes, against the current status of service delivery strategies. The study then explored success factors that could enhance the development of civil engineering technicians in training, within the co-operative education relationship. The literature study concentrated on the nature and value of co-operative education. It also highlighted the contributions of the respective role players in educational strategies and their added value to the education of technicians in training. An important distinction was established between training and learning where training, as a content-driven concept has been redefined to learning, which implies a more student-centred approach in the search for knowledge and the demonstration of skills. Questionnaires were compiled which attempted to measure views and perceptions on desirable outcomes in relation to current practices prevailing in service delivery strategies by technikons and industry. The survey was completed by a total of 268 respondents consisting of 178 students, 40 academic staff from nine technikons and 50 companies from industry in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Kwazulu Natal and Gauteng. A statistical analysis and observations revealed reasonable consistency in the desirable outcomes of student learning and achievement. The survey also revealed that there were significant differences between the three samples when it came to measuring the contributions and involvement of the three parties in service delivery implementation. The conclusions flowing from the literature study and the empirical investigation revealed that the gap between the current status and desirable learning outcomes are being prejudiced by the inefficient application and utilisation of available and resources. It also revealed that service delivery within academic and experiential programmes are not geared sufficiently toward improving the quality of learning for civil engineering technicians in training. The recommendations suggest a formally structured and co-ordinated relationship between technikons, students and industry.…