Academic Professional Placement Schemes
If you are supporting students undertaking a placement or sandwich year, Academic Professional Placement Schemes provide a structured, quality-assured route for developing professional competence from the outset of their careers.
While many placements offer valuable experience, these approved schemes go further, embedding learning within a recognised framework aligned to Monitored Professional Development Scheme (MPDS) principles. This ensures that development is planned, supported, and mapped against UK-SPEC competences, so students are not just gaining experience, but actively building and evidencing their progress towards professional registration.
By introducing professional standards early, these schemes help bridge the gap between academic study and the workplace, creating a clear pathway into longer-term development programmes, including IMechE accredited MPDS, and supporting eligibility for Engineering Technician (EngTech) registration.
Apply for approval of your Academic Professional Placement Scheme
Degree Apprenticeships
Apprenticeships are integrated schemes designed to provide both education and competence-based development to participants. Engineering apprenticeships are designed considering the appropriate competency requirements of the Engineering Council (EngC).
Applicants from apprenticeships which deliver either an undergraduate or post-graduate level academic base are eligible to apply for Membership and registration in with the EngC in the appropriate category.
However, all applicants for registration at either IEng or CEng must still undergo the Professional Review Interview in order to establish their suitability against the EngC requirements for registration. Apprenticeship documents may be useful if completing the required Membership and registration application material, but successful completion of the apprenticeship does not automatically ensure success at registration.