After yonks of online learning, Semester 2 is over! No more awkward zoom calls or online lectures that suddenly become twice as long when you reach the lecturer’s favourite topic.
Well, maybe we’ll be treated to some more online learning next year.
Congratulations on finishing exams; I hope they went well for you all!
The exam period can be pretty intense sometimes, especially since exams in this faculty will often count for 50% of your grade.
The good news is that ENGGEN 204 Communication and Professional skills (the paper that all second years take in Sem 2) has no exam, so this most recent exam period has been a little more easy-going for us than usual.
Anyway, onto some CIVIL-related topics.
A big part of your engineering degree at The University of Auckland will be the Practical Work hours you’re required to do over the summer. The aim is to give you hands-on experience and make sure students are ready to leap into the industry.
Each specialisation has slightly different requirements for what your Practical Work experience could include. It’s categorised into “General” and “Sub-professional” hours, as there used to be a requirement for students to do 400 hours of each. However, you’re now free to do 800 hours of General work, 800 hours of sub-professional, or any mix of the two.
These are the guidelines for Civil Practical Work, shamelessly stolen from the following website:
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/engineering/current-students/undergraduate/practical-work/practical-work-types.html
General
“General Engineering work associated with skilled tradesmen that include the development of trade skills in the construction, earthmoving, mining, water and wastewater treatment, surveying, road and traffic, asset condition, minerals and resources, and environmental monitoring industries.”
Sub-professional
“Sub-professional work associated with professional engineers that include surveying, contract documentation, design and/or draughting, bore-hole logging, construction supervision, engineering associated with buildings and structures, geotechnical, earthworks, construction, mining, roading, traffic and water and wastewater treatment, hydrology and hydraulic works and environmental engineering and Summer Research Scholarship projects.”
So this means you could work for a contracting company, a consultancy, a trade, and much more!
Some of you may still be deciding which specialisations to choose – that’s totally fine. It can be possible to change your mind too, even after the specialisations have been assigned. (I didn’t officially switch to Civil until the week before classes started)
Good luck with the decision, and I hope you all have a fantastic summer!
That’s all from me!
Emma