Three essential elements of curriculum design for developing competent Food Engineering graduate students (for problem-solving in food industry) via work-integrated learning mechanism

Abstract

This article presents the curriculum design of Food Engineering Practice School (FEPS) program at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), Thailand. The FEPS program is a two-year English program leading to a master degree's in Food Engineering. This program aims at producing a new breed of research engineers who are well-wised in both technical and essential working skills and equipped with hands-on experience in problem-solving in food industry. The research methodology was based on lesson learned method, where CIPP (Context, Input, Process and Product) model was used to set the topics for AAR (After Action Review) activity. Data collection was performed by getting involve in the student activities, observing the students' behavior and interviewing the steak-holders of the program in order to come up with the essential elements of curriculum design of FEPS program. It was found that FEPS curriculum consists of 3 essential elements with 6 learning activities including general lecture, specific lecture, knowledge development activity, learning skill development activity, food factory visit and problem-solving in practice site. These activities led to development of student competency that meets the program objective. FEPS graduates were able to get jobs within the first year of graduation and about 30.16% of them got promoted to the management level within 5 years. Feedback form the employers indicated that FEPS graduates are competent and well equipped with essential working skills. The program had generated about 21.62 million Baht/year to the industrial practice site.