Innovative professional development for engineering staff

Since 1981, the UK Integrated Graduate Development Scheme (IGDS) has established itself as an innovative partnership between industry and academia which ensures that industry has access to high quality professional development courses. The South West Regional IGDS has built on this solid foundation by pioneering the "booking agency" approach, by establishing a well-regulated partnership between a number of higher education institutions (HEIs) and by introducing innovative marketing concepts. The establishment of this programme has been made possible by the fact that the partner HEIs are enthusiastic to collaborate with their peers. The resulting IGDS is composed of modules presented by those partners who are best equipped to offer specific topics as part-time professional development modules.