Course Catalogue

English Communication and Engineering Career Skills UESTCHN2005

  • Academic Session: 2026-27
  • School: School of Engineering
  • Credits: 20
  • Level: Level 2 (SCQF level 8)
  • Typically Offered: Semester 2
  • Available to Visiting Students: No
  • Collaborative Online International Learning: No
  • Curriculum For Life: No

Short Description

This course develops key language and communication skills for engineers to allow them to convey information clearly and concisely both orally and in writing. Students will develop skills in the critical analysis of technical documents to extract key engineering facts and arguments. The course addresses the needs of a graduate engineer by focussing on key employability skills.

This course also aims to develop students' academic English language skills to meet the requirement for progression from Year 2 to Year 3 (equivalent of at least 6.0 in each subset of IELTS). For this reason, students must achieve a minimum D3 grade in certain elements of assessment individually.

Timetable

This course will include blocked lectures and weekly follow-up seminars

Requirements of Entry

None

Excluded Courses

None

Co-requisites

None

Assessment

Written exam: writing, reading 40%

Written assignment: 20%

Oral assessment & presentation: 30% (20%presentation and 10% interview)

Set exercise: portfolio of tasks 10%

 

Note:

Because this course can be used to meet the English language requirement for progression from Year 2 to Year 3, students must achieve a minimum D3 grade in each of the following components:

■ Written exam;

■ Written assignment; and

■ Oral assessment & presentation.

If the minimum grades of D3 are not achieved separately in each component, the overall grade for the course will be capped at E1.

Main Assessment In: April/May

Course Aims

This course aims to:

■ develop key language and communication skills for prospective engineers 

■ develop students' critical analytical skills when reading scientific and engineering documents

■ develop the skills to present information of a technical nature in written and oral communication clearly and concisely

■ develop academic research skills for engineers

■ develop spoken and written employability skills for engineers

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ search for, evaluate and select relevant information from printed and online resources

■ produce clear and concise technical documents/reports using appropriate, discipline-specific language, style and referencing conventions

■ deliver oral presentations of a technical nature, incorporating effective visual aids

■ produce relevant and appropriate written and spoken information for job seeking, incorporating Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) principles

■ interact effectively in an interview context

■ work effectively in a team on a literature-based research task

■ analyse issues related to the Grand Challenges in engineering.

Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits

No exceptions