Implementation of Work-Based Learning Among Electrical Engineering Diploma Students in an Electric Utility Company
Redia Redzuwan1*, Amira Raihana Adnan1, Rahmat Abdul Wahid1
1 College of Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected] Accepted: 15 December 2022 | Published: 30 December 2022
DOI:https://doi.org/10.55057/ijares.2022.4.4.9
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Abstract: Engineering students graduating from a higher education institution (HEI) are expected to have hands-on experience to be relevance in employment. Work-Based Learning (WBL) is defined as a learning method that engages or includes students in real-world employment so that they may learn the needs of job competencies, experience the job culture first-hand, and uncover career options. Industrial training (IT) is a work-based learning approach required of engineering students as part of their diploma courses. Implementation of IT with duration of 18 weeks was employed for 27 students Diploma in Electrical Engineering students. Students undergo fields rotation with different appointed supervisors throughout the IT period. The IT that was implemented enabled students to obtain important industrial exposure. Industrial visitation at a coal power plant was arranged to give additional industrial exposure to the students. Oral presentation at the end of the course, logbook and final report submission are assessed by assigned supervisors and lecturers for evaluation of each student.
The study has offered insights into current IT implementation as well as some suggestions for the future implementation. To track the institution's IT implementation, the study should be applied to the following cohorts.
Keywords: industrial training, work-based learning, electrical engineering, diploma
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1. Introduction
Engineering students graduating from a higher education institution (HEI) are expected to have hands-on experience to be relevance in employment. Work-Based Learning (WBL) is defined as a learning method that engages or includes students in real-world employment so that they may learn the needs of job competencies, experience the job culture first-hand, and uncover career options. This curriculum is meant to expose students to a variety of experiences in their respective technical domains, such as on-site training, diversified collaborative work cultures, and quality systems that inculcate world-class safety standards and professional ethics (C.
Alfred et al., 2013). Industrial training (IT) is a work-based learning approach required of engineering students as part of their diploma courses. IT is described as engineering technology training in a professional engineering practise setting. IT has recently been recognised as a
"high-impact" strategy that boosts student engagement and academic achievement (Kuh, 2008). A properly structured WBL system with administered cooperative efforts can assist students in acquiring new knowledge or skill (C. Yin et al., 2014). A gap analysis is required for such alternatives to ensure that the intended outcomes are attained (Board of Engineers Malaysia, 2021). IT has the ability to engage students in the working culture of a business,
opening up numerous chances for the development of professional networks and field-specific or occupation-specific professional skills and abilities (Hora et al., 2020).
The industry exposure enhances the undergraduate’s work life through added enthusiasm and commitment; provides a lifelong learning experience; is an opportunity to engage with the profession to which they aspire in a realistic work environment; appreciate and understand the practical application of their academic program; work with professional mentors and to begin to build networks within their profession. In addition, students will also be able to familiarize themselves with receiving the advice and comply with all directions given employers and able to do a job that is entrusted with complete besides being responsible and dedicated employees.
At the same time, industrial training can also nurture a student’s leadership ability and responsibility to perform or execute the given task. Besides of that, the student will be more disciplined to follow rules and regulations when conducting industrial training. They would be trained for proper schedule planning and time management. This situation will be fostered responsibly and independent to students. Finally, through this industrial training student can take this as a challenge and test their perseverance and thinking abilities when facing a decision-making situation.
2. Work-Based Learning in Diploma Engineering Education
Industrial Training (IT) is essential for students because it exposes them to a working environment outside of the classroom. In general, the purpose of IT is to expose students to various engineering disciplines, particularly those associated with electrical engineering, and to provide them with practical knowledge, experience, and professional skills. According to Jesus and Urbano (2010), IT activities are described as periods of engineering education that take place outside of the university's geographical boundaries and are aimed at giving students with information and competencies that are not easily attained in their classrooms.
All diploma engineering students are required to undergo IT as part of their curriculum to complete two and half (2 1/2) years course for the Diploma of Electrical Engineering. The IT will be conducted for an 18-week period of training at respective industrial companies. It is compulsory for all diploma program students to undergo the Industrial Training Program since this is the main requirements for an accredited engineering diploma by the Engineering Technology Accreditation Council (ETAC), under the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) (Engineering Technology Accreditation Council, 2019). IT with the subject code COED3019 (Industrial Training) is a required subject for an 18-week Diploma in Electrical Engineering programme. With proper planning, IT have the ability to gives hands-on experience to the students even with restriction imposed such as COVID-19 lockdown measures (Wahid et al., 2021).
The students will be directly supervised by employees of the company as well as from university’s lecturer, thus it is expected that they will be familiar with effective, accountable, and ethical conduct. Apart from that, the assessment will be made by the appointed visiting lecturer and the industry supervisors. A Program Outcome (PO) survey is also embedded in the assessment form by the industry supervisors. There will also be a survey of the students prior to completion of their training. Evaluation will be based on the student’s performance evaluated by the industry supervisor, oral presentation, final report and student logbook toward grading whether pass or fail.
3. Implementation
27 students sponsored by energy provider company scholarship from the Diploma in Electrical Engineering program completed their IT course during Special Semester, Academic Year 2021/2022. 63 % of them are male students, and 37 % are female students. For age category, 81 % of students are 20 years old, 4 % of students 21 years old and 15 % of students 22 years old. The students are in their second year of Diploma studies.
Table 1: Demographics
Gender N %
Male 17 63
Female 10 37
Total 27 100
Age
20 years 22 81
21 years 1 4
22 years 4 15
Total 27 100
Students were given rotation in five divisions which are Distribution, Transmission, Retail, Asset Management, and Power Plant. The rotation was planned to give full experience to the students of an energy provider company. The IT was implemented in 18 weeks duration. Five lecturers with relevant engineering background were assigned to perform IT visitation. This is to gauge the student’s performance during their IT.
3.1 Supervision
Every student has a line supervisor assigned to them for the duration of their industrial training.
A line supervisor is an engineer or other qualified employee who works for the company and serves as the student's personal contact person and mentor for the purpose of supervising and directing engineering-related work activities during the industrial training.
The role of line supervisor as per below:
1) Facilitating and guide students undergoing the industrial training.
2) Validating the student logbook.
3) Evaluating the student performance.
4) Submitting or fill in the student performance evaluation report within the specified time frame.
3.2. Training Schedule
Throughout 18 weeks of industrial training in this company, students were assigned across 5 divisions, namely Distribution, Transmission, Retail, Asset Management and Power Plant (Refer Table 1). Table 1 shows the planned activities or training schedule provided by the company to these students to enhance their knowledge and skills in engineering works especially in the generation, transmission, distribution, and retail of electricity.
During the training, various division’s responsibilities, work scope, and technical knowledge were included as learning requirements. Students were given with a different task that exposed them to all common engineering processes and hand-on exposure that suitable for a trainee.
Indeed, there were multiple occasions where learning was carried out on site to observe how certain tasks were accomplished, or how problems were encountered and solved.
Additionally, they were involved in the installation of additional phase wires, which fixed the under voltage issue. They also witnessed the procedure of checking load for phase, learnt about common tests carried out by the Cable Testing Team and observed the cable jointing procedure.
In order to enhance understanding of the subject, further reading of manuals, policies, and guidelines in the office were also required and duly carried out. At times, discussion and guidance were sought-after among available supervisors.
Table 2: 18 Week Industrial Training Schedule
Divisions Unit Duration (Weeks)
Distribution
Planning
6 Project
Distribution Maintenance Substation Maintenance Street Lighting
Technical Services
Transmission
Substation Operation
6 Substation Maintenance
System Automation
Protection, Control & Instrumentation Transmission Lines
Retail Customer Services 1
Asset Management Meters 1
Power Plant Maintenance (Electrical) Operation (Electrical) 2
4. Assessments
Assessment will be place both during and after the internship period. Starting with the first month of industrial training and continuing through the last day of industrial training, students' performance will be regularly evaluated throughout the internship time. Student were tasked with daily logbook report, end of course oral presentation and written final report submission.
The supervisor from the industry and a visiting lecturer from the university will both evaluate the candidate according to four main criteria below:
1) Logbook
2) Oral presentation
3) Student's performance evaluation 4) Final report (student)
4.1 Logbook
One of the written reports necessary for the assessment of industrial training is a logbook. The digital logbook is given to the students as means of documenting the tasks accomplished during their industrial training. During the training time, students are required to discuss with industrial supervisor on training schemes during the training period. The logbook should include information for each day that the students attend their internship, along with the date
• Meetings students attended and any contribution you made to the meeting
• Completed tasks or projects
• Discussions with teammates or supervisors
• Research students conducted and where/what students researched
• Relevant sketches, data, diagrams, or pictures.
• References to textbooks, standards and other technical information related to the task being performed.
For this WBL implementation, the students had to fill out 2 distinct logbooks. One is a logbook from a university, and the other is a host company’s logbook also called as Workplace Learning (WPL) logbook. This WPL logbook consists of 30 questions covering 4 Departments that students were assigned to. The example of the questions as per Table 3 below.
Table 3: Sample of questions in Workplace Learning logbook
Learning Outcome (LO) Questions
Power Plant Overview With reference to the block diagrams or any other useful documents/information obtained from the station, explain the power plant layout and how a coal fire plant operates.
For this task, you are required to arrange a sharing session with your Line Supervisor and peers to share what you have learnt about the station layout and how it works.
Demonstrate understanding in synchronizing
operation.
Demonstrate understanding in synchronizing operation with respect to:
a. Manual synchronizing
• List down the four criterial to be check before closing the generator circuit breaker.
• The control and adjustment required with respect to the above criterial.
• The instrument required for the manual synchronizing.
b. Auto synchronizing
• The device occupied to perform auto synchronizing.
• Explain the function of auto synchronizing with compared to manual synchronizing
Understand the relevance of Operation in
Transmission Network Operation
Name the different types of substations. (Generation, Transmission and Distribution) of electric power
Name and draw various busbar configurations used in company’s system (Including Busbar, Bus Section, Incomer, Feeder etc.) Sketch and label the section drawing of various bay types (e.g., Transformer Bay etc)
Capture photo and label all primary equipment (e.g., CVT etc) and major components of Transformer (e.g. Bushing etc)
Students were required to obtain the industry supervisor's signature and stamp on their weekly and monthly reports. No marks will be awarded if the logbook is submitted without the industrial supervisor's signature. The required learning outcomes for the internship were met when the required logbooks completed by the students.
4.2 Oral Presentation and Student's Performance Evaluation
A representative of the UNITEN, namely a visiting lecturer, was assigned by the coordinator to visit the student at his or her industrial training organisation to monitor and assess the student’s performance. The IT visit typically occurs between weeks 10 and 12 of the industrial training cycle. During the visit, the students are required to present the results of their industrial training, and the visiting lecturer and the host supervisor or representative from the company evaluated the presentations.
The evaluation of the student's performance by the IT supervisor is an integral part of the student’s individual and professional development during IT. This evaluation serves as an important tool that assists student in further developing their skills by highlighting their strengths and constructively identifying areas for improvement.
After presentation assessments, the students and lecturers visited coal-fired power station operated by the energy provider company. From the industrial visit, the students were exposed to the coal-fired power station process until generating the electricity. The representative of the energy provider company illustrates where each process that uses coal from a local source is located.
4.3 Final Report
The students are required to complete an Industrial training report at the end of the training.
The final report from the industrial training is one of the most important components used to gauge how well the industrial training-experienced students performed. Students will be graded on the report's content, presentation (objective, language used, sentence structure), and writing format. The report should be submitted to the visiting lecturer immediately at the end of the training.
5. Findings and discussions
From the oral presentation, students were asked to share their experiences while doing IT. They faced several challenges such as difficulty in adapting to workplace environments which is understandably different from online or physical classroom environments. Lack of access to learning material while doing IT was also shared by student as most of the material are confidential documents where only the hired staff can access. Students reported that they are unable to perform hands-on tasks due to certifications and safety reasons. Some of the hands- on tasks requires certain safety certifications. Student also feels that they lack competencies in handling the responsibilities assigned to them. Apart from that, student feels the IT organised is very short period of time.
Students were also requested to share the lessons that have garnered from IT implementation.
One of the most prominent lessons gained from IT implementation are the entire experience hone their communication skills. Students need to be able to communicate well with their superiors, namely their supervisor. They also need to communicate with their subordinates such as the technicians while performing field works. Students were very thankful for the work field standard skills that they have gained, and safety requirements in workplaces. They shared that
they have to actively learn and observe procedures in site in order to make up for their lack of hands-on responsibility due to safety regulations.
Some of the responses garnered are as below:
“In conclusion, my industrial training has been very fruitful, meaningful and informative. As a result, my academic knowledge and technical know-how have both improved. Over and above, I also improved greatly on my soft skill set, significantly contributed to fostering good relationship with my supervisors and technicians. I am most grateful that I was able to experience the real-world working environment in such a prestigious company. I highly encourage students who study electrical engineering to undergo training at this company as this is tremendous opportunity to experience the latest technology in the electrical engineering industry. Nonetheless, I really hope to come back to this esteemed establishment to undergo further industrial training related to my studies in more advanced discipline.”
“Throughout this industrial training, I was attached with various divisions in Western Region.
From there, I was given a thorough insight on the internal operations of the distribution department thus enabling me to further explore and crystalize job interests and abilities.
Therefore, I am beyond grateful to be able to obtain experiences on technical practices and observe standard management practices implemented in the company.”
“I have developed the ability to identify, formulate and model problems and also find engineering solutions based on a system’s approach. This valuable skill is achieved by analysing challenges encountered from site visits and discussing available solutions with experienced technicians or supervisors. My experiences during site visits have encouraged me to actively interact and work with professional employees of this company. Through the insightful discussions, I can build effective communication and problem-solving skills which are beneficial for my career advancement in the professional workforce.”
“Completion of both the university and company logbooks increased my overall productivity and motivation as I set practical goals to achieve every week. By that, I have instilled good ethical values such as responsibility, commitment and punctuality during my industrial training which prepares myself to adapt the real working environment. In addition, I have greatly enhanced my time management abilities by consciously organizing and planning my day-to- day activities.”
The IT implemented shows good outcomes as shared by the students in their logbooks, oral presentations and written final reports. Even with COVID-19 restrictions at the beginning of their IT, they were able to experience hands-on experience as the restrictions loosen and able to return to their workplace. Proper planning from both the learning institution and the hosting company proves crucial to bring out the most beneficial WBL experience to the students.
6. Conclusions
The IT that was implemented shows usefulness as a method of WBL. The implemented IT enabled students to obtain important industrial exposure. As a result, the study has offered insights into current IT implementation as well as some suggestions for the future implementation. To track the institution's IT implementation, the study should be applied to the following cohorts.
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