What is an Academic Professional Placement Scheme?
The Academic Professional Placement Scheme is designed to provide students with practical industry experience during their degree programme. Unlike the normal accredited
Monitored Professional Development Scheme, the scheme typically lasts a maximum of one year and serves as the first stage of an MPDS. It focuses on the placement or sandwich year in industry, usually occurring at the end of the second year of a BEng or the third year of an MEng programme.
Benefits of Academic Professional Placement Schemes
Completing an Academic Professional Placement Scheme supports the development of engineering competence that underpins progression towards professional registration. Through structured workplace experience, students build and demonstrate key skills such as practical application of knowledge, problem-solving, communication, and professional responsibility - aligning with the Engineering Council’s competence framework set out in the
UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence and Commitment (UK-SPEC).
In addition, successful completion of the scheme provides eligibility for students to apply for
Engineering Technician (EngTech) registration upon finishing their year in industry – serving as formal recognition of the Engineering skills and competence developed during their time on the scheme.
How to apply for approval of your Scheme
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) seeking to approve or re-approve their Scheme must submit an application form. The application will be subject to initial scrutiny and a risk assessment conducted by a professional registered engineer to evaluate the scheme’s suitability for approval or re-approval.
Application fees, cancellation policies, scheme (re-)registration, and arrangements for visits are detailed in the application guidelines.
Upon registration, academic schemes will be assigned a unique reference number.