Developing Professional Skills in a Third-Year Undergraduate Chemistry Course Offered in Western Australia

Abstract

This unit gave me a broad industrial view of the chemical world and I am grateful for the professional skills I gained. That is the response of one graduate several years after he had taken the and unit that we present in the third year of the undergraduate chemistry course at Western Australia's Curtin University of Technology. Students in tertiary education are effectively cocooned from the real world. There is a growing need for a teaching that links students to situations they will encounter upon gaining employment. The Chemistry and Technology unit has been developed over a 12-year period and is presented in the final semester of the course. It comprises six modules and is taught by lecturers from industry and the staff of the School. The Professional Practice, Consumer Chemistry, and Environmental modules are ones that most teachers could consider in their course. The other three modules are specific to Western Australia's needs, but could be modified or replaced to cater ...