Practitioners within the Consortium initially identified the electronics requirement of the Level 2 Engineering Diploma as one of the more challenging units to teach. For this reason they elected to make it one of the first units to deliver to allow for any potential issues to be resolved. Having submitted student work to the awarding body they have recently been informed that all 9 students passed, with 7 achieving an A and 2 achieving a B.

Delivering a new qualification such as the Diploma presents a variety of challenges, as do all new qualifications. The shear size of the programme, coupled with the collaborative delivery method, means that the Diploma has really tested those involved in rolling them out.

John McMahon, (Diploma Implementation Leader) from West Herts College explains how their consortium’s approach made the subject of Electronics engaging for the students, and why the students have achieved the level of success they have.

“In the planning stages we quickly flagged the electronics unit as being a potential hurdle for a number of reasons. In terms of the curriculum, the electronics was only a 30 Guided Learning Hour unit, coupled with the fact that we deliver the Level 2 Diploma over one year as a post-16 option, means that time is potentially a huge issue for us.

Our Diploma students split their time between St Clement Danes High School and West Herts College. The electronics delivery predominantly takes place at the college as a 3 hour lesson on Monday mornings, all the more reason for making the students experience as varied and hands-on as possible.

The teaching team decided to put as much emphasis on practical investigation and project work as possible, as we were well aware that electronics can sometimes come across as a very dry subject. This meant putting together resources that offer a real “WOW factor”, giving our students an engaging and interesting learning experience, and more importantly, a curriculum plan that gets the best out of those resources.

We selected software and hardware tools from LJ Create that not only enable us to carry out practical tasks such as soldering and circuit production, but also allow us to deliver theoretical lessons in a concise and practical manner. Whilst we were putting together our Schemes of Work, we quickly began to appreciate the importance of this element of the Diploma and didn’t want to water down such a vital aspect of the students engineering study.

The students were exposed to an array of electronic systems that related to real-world problems and solutions, such as; water temperature alarms, automatic lights, pedestrian crossing controls and lift door controllers, to name but a few. This allowed them to appreciate the role that electronics plays in the modern engineered world and more importantly, in order to understand the operation of these circuits, there are some essential principles they have to get their heads around.

Gone are the days where electronics is taught on the blackboard with the lecturer drawing in chalk a series of lines, boxes and symbols; that, by modern standards, seems such a flat approach. Today, with some of the software tools available to use on our Interactive Whiteboard and laptops, I can build circuits that look like real components and switch between schematic view and component view as well as use virtual instruments to explain circuit operation.

We submitted the students’ portfolios in January, which is always an anxious time, but we were very keen to see how they had performed. When the results came back we were understandably blown away. Especially as this is the first feedback for the students, our hope is that the results will act as great incentive for them to apply themselves equally in the other units. From our teaching point of view, it has reinforced the need to apply as much of our Diploma teaching to the real-world as possible and engage students in practical investigation.”

This is what some of the students had to say about their experiences so far:

"The Diploma is a good blend of practical and academic work. I love the practical elements, I learn really well by doing the hands-on activities, I understand more by seeing and doing."

"Studying the Diploma is brilliant, our teachers at St Clement Danes School and West Herts College give us the freedom to study at our own pace and take ownership of our learning, which is great, I enjoy studying this way. "