About Practical Work

ENGGEN 499 for the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) (BE(Hons)) or ENGGEN 699 for the Master of Professional Engineering (MPE): Practical Work is a core component of your degree that is one of the key components required by Engineering NZ (Washington Accord) accreditation.

You are required to complete 800 hours of practical work that is related to your specialisation study, have the hours signed off by your employer/supervisor, and complete a formal written report. 800 hours are roughly equivalent to four months of fulltime work.

Most BE(Hons) students generally undertake the hours throughout the summer breaks at the end of Part II and III to graduate on time. However there are no restrictions when you complete your practical work. It can be during any breaks, full-time or part-time, before or after you start your BE(Hons) or MPE study with us.

Practical work may comprise general work, sub-profession work, or a combination of both.

The Faculty of Engineering encourages students to take up a combination of sub-professional and general hours as part of their practical work experience. We believe that it will help students develop a deeper understanding of the scope of industry and the nature of the engineering work environment.

• General work: This work allows you to become familiar with engineering processes and trade skills, particularly those appropriate to your specialisation.
• Sub-professional work: This work involves work as a junior engineer with responsibilities, work level and technical expertise that takes advantage of your engineering training to date.

It is preferred that for each separate work period that you are working with a different employer to give you a broader range of work experience. However, multiple employment periods for the same company may be accepted if you have different jobs and tasks for subsequent period of work. Please note that your practical work experience should be related to your particular engineering specialisation.

You should register your job in the Practical Work Portal at the early stage of your internship. If you are newly allocated to a Part II specialisation then you will normally be given access to the Practical Work Portal in the first semester of your specialisation after the March report intake.

If you have industry experience before you start your BE(Hons) or MPE programme at the University of Auckland, or you are one of the Part I students who managed to have done some work that is related to the specialisation you are allocated to later, it is possible to register your work in the Portal retrospectively.

All of the following tasks will be conducted through the Practical Work Portal.

• Registering company and employment periods
• Supervisor sign off for tasks and hours
• Practical work report submissions
• Viewing report marks and your accumulated hours tally

All practical work experience must be registered online prior to submitting a related work report. You should try to register at the beginning of each period of employment and within the first week from the day you start your practical work experience. The Portal opens to students who have access to do all the relevant activities such as registering jobs and getting hours signed off, etc. at any time throughout a year. However the “report submission” only opens during a report submission and resubmission period as announced.

Please note that the Portal accepts retrospective registrations because some students may need it, such as matured students who already have extensive experiences before joining with the BE(Hons) or MPE. However normal students are strongly encouraged to register their jobs early.

At the end of your employment period you should add tasks-related hours worked. Then request your supervisor to signs off your completed tasks and work hours as soon as possible, in case of possible future staff change from the company so you may lose the contact of your supervisor. You may then submit a practical work report later during any practical work report submission intake during your degree. Please refer to the Practical Work reports page for more info on when you must submit your last report if you wish to graduate on time.

Practical Work Reports.

You must get your hours signed off before submitting a report, otherwise the report will be pushed back by the marker without being marked.

You may spread out the report submissions or submit multiple reports during one submission period. Please note that in order to graduate on time, you must have submitted all your work reports and completed 800 hours of Practical work at least 6 months prior to your intended graduation. There are two practical work report submission intakes each year, which are usually in March and in August of each respective year. For example, if you wish to attend the May Graduation then you must have submitted all your work reports, claiming all 800 hours of work experience, by the August report intake of the previous year.

Multiple employment periods for the same company may be covered by one report. Full-time jobs typically require two summers over a period of four months to complete all 800 hours. Part-time jobs will often have more than two periods. All tasks and hours are required to be signed off by your supervisor/s. Please note that different employment periods for the same company may have different supervisors. It is acceptable that the supervisors who eventually sign off your hours may be different from the one when you register the company due to staff change.

If you have submitted and passed a report for one company then take up further work for the same company again, then you must begin the whole process of registration and report submission again by re-registering the company and submitting a different report. In this case, you need to have covered different tasks and types of work from those covered in the previous report.

To clarify, a separate report is required for each different company.

Students may undertake practical work with an overseas company/employer, and in this case the same registration and reporting process apply.

Please note that the hard copy PDF employment certificate is no longer available online for download. It is reserved as a backup method when it is technically impossible to request your supervisor to sign off your tasks and hours online. You should go to AskAuckland to request it. You should still log the tasks and hours online under the employment period, but do not request an online sign off if you will later upload a pdf certificate together with your report.

PDF certificates that have been signed off by a supervisor in the past will continue to be accepted. Please refer to the above paragraph for the same process.

Only one method for the hours sign off is required, either online or by a pdf certificate.

Please read the process manual before starting to use the portal.

There are several ways to find a suitable position for your Practical Work experience:

• Make sure you have an effective CV and cover letter. Our faculty holds workshops throughout the year and we recommend that you attend them.
• A 'find an employer' link is included on the online Practical Work registration to help you locate potential employers. These companies have employed our students in the past, and can be a good starting point. Select your engineering specialisation and the country you are seeking employment in to view a list of relevant organisations. 
• Make use of any industrial contacts you have within your chosen discipline. You may also be able to expand your circles by joining engineering clubs, networks and associations.
• Search the online directory of New Zealand businesses.
• Keep an eye on your University email (username@auckland.ac.nz). Our faculty periodically circulates vacancies for students.
• If you have a scholarship or internship with a company, you may be able to complete all your Practical Work with them.

When finding an employer, you may also consider the following:

• Working for a start-up company with a group of students is acceptable as long as normal employer/employee systems are in place and you're working under the supervision of a mentor who can sign off on your work hours.
  
• It's often not about the company you work for, but the nature of your tasks that have to comply with the practical work requirements for your specialisation — with this in mind, there are companies traditionally outside your specialisation that may be appropriate.
  
• The companies listed on the Practical Work registration database is just a starting point. You can work for any company provided that there is suitable practical work expereince available. 
• A limited number of hours can be claimed from University of Auckland work, as this part of your degree is designed for you to attain physical work experience. You can only claim up to 400 hours from Research Assistant/Summer Research Internship work. Your supervisor must also be willing to sign these hours off as complying work experience. The research report for the Summer Research projects will NOT be accepted as a practical work report. You must follow the practical work report format to produce a proper practical work report.
  
• We strongly encourage students to work for at least two different companies to be exposed to different work environments and company culture. If you need to work for the same company for multiple periods you must conduct different tasks for different periods.
  

After you have found a job, please follow these steps:

1. Make sure the work is suitable as practical experience for your specialisation. If not please contact your Practical Work Committee department representative listed lower down on the page. 
2. Register your work online in the week after starting your job at the Practical Work Portal
3. Make note of your activities and information you'll need for your Practical Work Report
4. When you finish your work add the employment period and tasks and hours on the Practical Work Portal
5. Request your supervisor to sign off your hours online as soon as possible in case of subsequent company staff change 
6. Submit your report on the Practical Work Portal
7. Your work hours will be credited once your report has successfully passed
    

If you have substantial industry experiences before entering the BE(Hons) or MPE programme at the University of Auckland, you may be exempt from completing further hours to meet the practical work requirement. You may register your work retrospectively at the Practical work portal (please refer to the Practical Work Process Manual on how to use the Portal).
Practical work portal.
Practical Work Process Manual.

You need to provide evidence of the hours by requesting them to be signed off by your supervisor/employer online, or request a pdf employment certificate by contacting AskAuckland for your supervisor to sign and attach to the reflective report. You then submit a practical work report during one of the practical work intakes to the Portal.
AskAuckland 
Pratical work report.

After you pass the report(s), your previous experience hours will be accepted to meet your practical work requirement. You will not need to complete further hours after you start to study your BE(Hons) or MPE at the University of Auckland, unless there is a shortfall to the minimum required 800 hours.

The Practical Work Assistance Centre is a drop in clinic where you can seek help from Peer Mentors on all aspects of your Engineering practical work. This service is available for all BE(Hons) and MPE students. Starting Week Two of each semester, drop by at any of the below times to the Level 3 Leech study space:

• Monday, 12pm- 2pm
• Tuesday, 2pm-4pm
  
• Thursday, 1pm – 3pm

CV and interview workshops are held in both the faculty and around University throughout the year. You can also contact CDES to see what career-specific help is available.

Our Employee Liaison Manager can also provide advice, support and direction for your application: Courtney King.

If you are unsure whether or not the work you will be undertaking is suitable for your specialisation, please contact your Practical Work Committee department representative.

Faculty of Engineering Practical Work Committee

• Chair: Dr Conrad Zorn
• Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering: Dr Wei Yu and Thomas Loho
• Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dr Conrad Zorn
• Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Associate Professor Waleed Abdulla
• Department of Engineering Science and Biomedical Engineering
  • Biomedical Engineering: Associate Professor Iain Anderson
  • Engineering Science: Dr Michael O'Sullivan
• Department of Mechanical Engineering: Dr Jonathan Stringer