Undergraduate students can undertake professional development and record it as part of MPDS while at university. Note that professional development is separate from your academic learning, so only industrial experience can count towards this. MPDS is a suitable way to record a year in industry, industrial experience in a sandwich year, or summer placements.
To take part in undergraduate MPDS you will need
- To join a university or company with a scheme on which to register
- Affiliate membership of the IMechE
- A mentor who is registered as a CEng or IEng
What you need to know
- You will need to be a member of the IMechE to register on the scheme
- Students do not pay subscription fees until they graduate
- Students do not pay MPDS registration fees, unless they are with a company that requires use of e-MPDS
- Students who are NOT required to register on e-MPDS by their industrial placement organisation should work towards Training Objectives for the initial stages of MPDS and progress to the UK-SPEC competence framework after graduation.
- Students who are required to register on e-MPDS by their industrial placement organisation should work towards the UK-SPEC competence framework.
- Students are required to complete paper Quarterly Reports and a paperAssessment Report at the end of each placement
- Students will need to keep their own signed copies of all their MPDS reports for use after they graduate.
- After graduation, students can continue MPDS but this does not happen automatically – you will need to re-register on the MPDS as a graduate.
Links
Training Objectives
Student records to download
Important: At the end of your placement and after Graduation
Make sure that your mentor has signed all of your quarterly and assessment reports. Send a copy of your Assessment Reports to IMechE. You will then show these to your new mentor when you start working after graduation.
You can continue MPDS but you will need to re-register as a graduate, pay registration fees and start using the online system e-MPDS. You must do this within two months of starting work at your new company, or at the same company. Otherwise some of the time spent with that company may not count towards MPDS.
It is possible to continue MPDS at an organisation that does not have an accredited scheme, provided you initially completed at least 9 months of MPDS on an accredited scheme.
