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Engineering Leadership

The aim of the Engineering Leadership Programme (ELP) is to develop effective engineering leaders ready to face the challenges of industry and business today. In order to become future engineering leaders our graduates must have an awareness and experience of issues such as

  • Communications and people skills
  • Influencing and motivating skills
  • Interdisciplinary decision and teamwork capability
  • Financial management 
  • Market and customer focus
  • “Big picture” engineering
  • Leadership abilities and organizational social awareness
  • Enterprise understanding
  • Management tools and processes
  • Competitiveness
  • Taking responsibility to prevent failure

We have worked closely with industry in the development of this programme, thus ensuring that the content and delivery of the programme is that which is required to develop engineers who are capable of integrating seamlessly into a company and who will be capable of leading complex projects early in their careers.

The Programme

The best engineering students from across our degree programmes (Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Product Design Engineering) will be selected at the end of the first year of the degree to participate in the programme which will be structured as shown in Figure 1. 

Year of ELP Year of degree programme Activity
>1 >2 >Students will attend a 3 hour training session one evening every week for 2 semesters. The weekly training sessions will take place on Thursday evenings.In addition to this they will complete a 1 week full-time course between semester 1 and semester 2.
>2 >Year out >Guaranteed 1 year paid placement with sponsoring company
>3 >3 >Students will attend a 3 hour training session one evening every week for 2 semesters. The weekly training sessions will take place on Thursday evenings. In addition to this they will complete a 1 week full-time course between semester 1 and semester 2.
Summer Year 3 Summer Year 3 Guaranteed 2-3 month paid placement with sponsoring company
 Figure 1. Structure of the ELP

The training delivered to the students over years 1 & 3 of the ELP will include the following:

  • Self assessment: identification of strengths/weaknesses
  • Communications skills
  • Team building
  • Problem solving
  • Project management
  • Business awareness
  • Financial management
  • Innovation
  • Negotiation
  • Influencing
  • Leadership
  • Lean manufacturing
  • Energy management
  • Company projects

Class room based training and workshops will be supplemented with industrial visits, attendance at QUB master classes delivered by visiting experts and online training.

The role of the partner company

As a partner company on the ELP you will provide a one year paid placement at the end of the second year of the degree programme, plus a paid summer placement at the end of the third year of the degree programme - see figure 1. It is expected that the students will have the ability and opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge gained from their training to challenging problems in a technical/business context within their placements. Partner companies are also asked to provide the student with a mentor . The mentoring element of the ELP will provide the student with direct, personal contact with a practicing senior engineer in order to enhance their intellectual, social and professional development.

How to become a partner company on the ELP

If you believe that your company can provide a demanding yet supportive environment in which our future engineering leaders will will have the opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities then please complete this form.