At least 5 weeks of the work experience must be as a worker in mechanical industry, e.g. working with manufacturing, assembly and operation and maintenance. The work experience>should be in workshops or laboratories or as machine tender or fitter. Especially workshop-practice>in machine shops, operation- or maintenance-groups at Power Station’s, repair shops or larger steel>building works is recommended.>
For students who after graduation plan to seek their area of work within textile-, clothing, plastic-,>rubber-, paper- or wood industry or transportation, it is advisable that the practice to some extent is>done within these areas.>
The other part of the work experience can consist of work at a drawing office at an industrial plant>or a planning, work-study or work preparation department. The work experience should preferably>be chosen from the first category, where all documented work experience can be counted.
>Information on the guidelines for and purpose of industrial placement in the curricula is given to the >students by the person in charge of student placements at the Mechanical and Vehicular Engineering >department during the first term of their studies. The guidelines can also be found in the university >course catalogue .
The university staff wants the students themselves to take a strong role in planning for and to take initiative on their own in finding an industrial placement. Normally, the student gets no support from the university to find a job. The students, therefore, have to make their own contacts with different companies or apply through organisations like Leonardo or IAESTE for placements abroad.
At the department of Mechanical and Vehicular Engineering, there is no such ongoing partnership for the moment, concerning industrial placement.
Some students have found it difficult to obtain good practical shop-floor experience in industry, particularly in the earlier years. This problem was thought to be due to the last year’s recession, the increasing number of students and that the manufacturing processes are increasingly automated, advanced and coupled to heavy investments.
During the last years this has occurred to be a minor problem according to the Mechanical and Vehicular Engineering department. Usually, there are several companies that offer the students an industrial placement during the summer as one part of their recruit efforts.
The economic conditions are regulated by agreement between the unions and the companies.
Swedish law regulates legal status. The university has no influence on this matter.
The companies better pay the students if they apply for a summer work in stead of a practical training place.
Health and safety insurance needed are taken care of by the students themselves. As most of the industrial training is carried out during the summer vacations, the students will not be covered by any university insurance.
The university never checks up with the employee the behaviour of an individual student during the placement period. The university relies on the fact that the students themselves and the employees make every possible effort to make the placement a success.
After having finished the placement, the employer writes a certificate of practice with a specification of the work.
An overall assessment is made by the person in charge of industrial placements at the Mechanical and Vehicular department and is based on documented work experience and fulfilment of stipulated requirements.
The student has to provide the university with a Certificate of Practice and a written report describing the work experience.
The Certificate of Practice shall include
Students can also get parts of their required work experience approved during the year of studies. The reason for that is that it can be difficulties in getting long-time practice at one time.
The students themselves arrange contacts and placements, though the university supports the students economically through keeping an office room available. Work experience is also supplied through the exchange program LEONARDO and IAESTE.
15-20 per cent of the students at the Mechanical and Vehicular Engineering department do their industrial training period abroad. The most popular country is the US. The travelling costs to the US are financed through selling of advertising space to companies in a publication. The planning, organisation and printing of the book is taken care of by students’ association. This book contains, apart from the advertisements, reports from students doing practical training in the US.