Personal and career development in engineering
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Taking an innovative approach, this course teaches and evaluates your general and key skills associated with lifelong learning and career management. You will examine your career position, your qualifications and your learning needs, before compiling a development plan. Depending on your aspirations, you’ll identify a profile of modules to satisfy the OU regulations for the award of a BEng (Hons) degree. If you also have one of the grades of membership of a professional engineering institution as your target, leading to IEng or CEng, your profile will aim to satisfy the educational requirements of the institution you’ve selected.
You must first satisfactorily complete this course if you intend to take Key skills for professional engineers (T397).
Fees 2012
See fees and funding options for study from September 2012.
Course facts
An undergraduate course in Engineering and Technology.
| About this course: | |
|---|---|
| Course code | T191 |
| Credits | 15 |
| OU Level | 1 |
| SCQF level | 7 |
| FHEQ level | 4 |
| Course work includes: |
|---|
| 2 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) |
| End-of-module assessment |
| No residential school |
Register for the course
This course is available for study in the countries shown. Fees and financial support may vary by country.
What you will study
This is the first of two compulsory modules in The Open University’s Bachelor of Engineering honours degree.
With the help of your tutor, you will examine your career position, the qualifications you already have and your learning needs. Two of the course’s main purposes are to help you in compiling a development plan and in working out a programme of courses that suits your needs.
The course will enable you to integrate career management skills with the subject-based skills and knowledge you will gain from later study. It will help you to produce:
- a profile of the knowledge, qualifications and skills you already have
- an assessment of your opportunities for professional development
- a description of your goals for development, and how these might be achieved
- a report describing your development plan, plus a reflective account of the learning, both technical and personal, that you have experienced
- a portfolio containing a record of your achievements, self-evaluation, planning and project work.
The course is split into four parts as follows.
Part 1 Taking stock – You’ll examine where you are now in your life and career, the route you’ve followed, your personal strengths and weaknesses, and your hopes and priorities for the future.
Part 2 Key skills – You’ll explore the range of key skills in engineering and see how you measure up.
Part 3 Planning for development – This part guides you through the process of producing a plan for future development with a set of clearly defined goals. This will utilise what you’ve achieved and learnt, and will form the main part of your final assessment.
Part 4 Reviewing progress – In this part you’ll look back at the whole process to assess its value, and look forward to your future use of the experience and skills you’ve developed. This final part finishes with your end-of-module assessment (EMA).
Entry
Although this course is intended to be taken early in your studies, we advise you not to study it as your first Open University course – it is not designed to be an entry-level course.
This course has been designed for undergraduate engineers who are interested in exploring their own approach to learning, assessing their own plans for professional development and extending their capabilities as lifelong learners. It is suitable both for students who have recently embarked on their Open University degrees and for those who have degrees that don’t meet professional requirements.
You must complete T191 before going on to Key skills for professional engineers (T397), the other compulsory course for the BEng (Hons). You cannot take both in the same academic year.
If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
If you have a disability or additional requirement
Written transcripts of any audio components and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) versions of the study material are available. Some Adobe PDF components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader and mathematical, scientific or diagrammatic material may be particularly difficult to read in this way. The printed study materials are available on audio in DAISY Digital Talking Book format. Other formats may be available in the future. Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability.
If you are a new student, or new to courses using a computer or the internet, you will need to inform us of your particular needs as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Details of how to do this and our range of support services are described in our publication Meeting Your Needs.
You can also find information about accessible study materials, financial support and the Disabled Students' Allowance, equipment and other services, on our Services for disabled students website. It also includes our contact details for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying.
Study materials
What's included
Course books, other printed materials, CDs, software, a website.
You will need
CD player.
Computing requirements
This course includes online computer activities – you can access these using a web browser that can play Flash and Shockwave. Some of your course software will be provided on disk.
You will need internet access and a computer. If you have purchased a new Windows computer since 2005 it should meet your course computing requirements. Check our Technical Requirements section if your computer is older than this or is otherwise unusual. Please note that you cannot use an Apple Mac or Linux computer unless it is running Windows using Boot Camp or similar dual-boot system.
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
You will be supported by a tutor with a professional engineering background, who is familiar both with The Open University and its courses and with the engineering institutions and their requirements for membership.
Contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.
Assessment
The assessment details for this course can be found in the facts box above.
You will be expected to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) online through the eTMA system unless there are some difficulties which prevent you from doing so. In these circumstances, you must negotiate with your tutor to get their agreement to submit your assignment on paper.
Each TMA is a narrative account supported by evidence. The end-of-module assessment is based on your written work and on accompanying documentary evidence.
Students also studied
Students who studied this course also studied at some time:
Future availability
The details given here are for the course that starts in October 2012. We expect it to be available once a year.
Fees 2012
See fees and funding options for study from September 2012.
Course facts
An undergraduate course in Engineering and Technology.
| About this course: | |
|---|---|
| Course code | T191 |
| Credits | 15 |
| OU Level | 1 |
| SCQF level | 7 |
| FHEQ level | 4 |
| Course work includes: |
|---|
| 2 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) |
| End-of-module assessment |
| No residential school |
Study explained
- Financial support
- - find out if you qualify for support with your fees with our eligibility checker.
- Study explained
- - all you need to know about distance learning with the OU.
Student Reviews
T191 is a strange module in terms of content, but proved very useful to someone like myself, who has been ...
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T191 is not really a useful module but you may find it useful if you have not made plans about ...
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Your questions
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Or contact an adviser in our Student Registration & Enquiry Service Email or call +44(0) 845 300 60 90+44(0) 845 366 60 35
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