Acknowledging the Educational and Professional Value of Voluntary Service Experiences

The Faculty of Engineering at UTS recognises the need for engineers to communicate technical issues to non-engineers and interact more effectively with the community about social needs and technological impacts and risks. Engineers are also often required to share their design and specialist expertise with community members and educators to better inform decisions and curriculum directions. To do these things effectively engineers must learn more about the non-engineering consequences of their solutions. To this end the Faculty of Engineering at UTS has developed an elective subject called 'Professional Service Project'. Two key outcomes of this subject are that the links established between the university, engineering and the community develop a better understanding of the needs of each stakeholder; and the subject recognises and rewards the skills learned through voluntary service. We outline how this subject is managed and expand on some of the activities involved.