Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE) is a professional association of academics, support staff, postgraduate students, librarians, professional engineers and employers who all have vested interests in fostering excellence and innovation in engineering education. 

In 2019, I convened a workshop on Industrial Training (IT), a requirement of many Australian engineering degree programs, for AAEE's annual conference. The workshop addressed the multi-faceted administrative, quality assurance and compliance requirements of IT through three structured activities: 

Activity 1 • Managing Industrial Training, where participant discussed what constitutes quality IT placement and reviewed the tools that can be used to administer and meet the compliance requirements for IT.

Activity 2 • Supporting Students, where participants shared best practices for supporting students in their search for IT placements, including the use of student as partners approach to create a system that develops the students' job search and employability skills.

Activity 3 • Assessing Industrial Training where participants shared best practices for capturing, assessing and evaluating student professional development during their IT placement.

Participants reflect on how the huge growth in student numbers and diversity, and the changes within the engineering profession necessitate a rethink of what constitutes a quality IT placement. We also discussed the insurmountable challenge faced by many Engineering Schools and Faculty to assess or evaluate student performance while they are on placement and the need for a shared framework or resources for IT.