Our idea will connect bright young minds with engineering orientated NGOs with the aim of engaging students in real-world problems while saving NGOs time and money.
The process starts with NGOs verifying themselves and signing up to the platform. They will then post problems they are facing or projects they desire support with along with enough information to clearly define the context of the problem, the solution criteria, the approximate hours it will take, and the skills needed. They will also agree to give 1hr in supervision and guidance per 100 combined student hours.
Once the platform is beginning to be populated with problems, teaching fellows, module leaders or degree programme directors will then be able to verify themselves and sign up to get access to the teaching side of the platform and choose a few module/course related projects that they think will enhance the student learning experience. The students will then be encouraged to log into the student part platform where, after taking an approximately 5hr course on the fundamentals of sustainable engineering, design for sustainable development and participatory approaches, they will be able to choose which project they would like to be involved in. The students will then pledge the number of hours that are required of them, once the approximate hours criteria (+10%) is met by hours pledged then the problem will become filled.
The platform offers an interactive workflow for students, tutors and not-for-profit organisations to share guidance, design documentation and progress reports. It will also provide a place for students to log their hours worked. When the agreed amount of time has elapsed, the students will present their solution the member of staff at the university who will check it over. When checked, it is submitted in the required format to the NGO with the legal ability to use the idea. The NGO will then be able to provide feedback on the solution and rate the group. The students are then able to privately rate each other after which both ratings are combined to provide one rating for the student (or one for effort and one for effectiveness). This is to protect the reputation of the platform. The NGO will then be required to provide an impact assessment within 3 months of submission which is sent to each of the students letting them know the impact that their work has had. Universities and NGO’s will be encouraged to make donations to the platform to pay for running costs. If this does not generate enough revenue, then Universities will be required to make a minimum donation per student.
The desired outcomes of this process are:
To educate students on sustainable engineering
To inspire engineers to consider working for NGOs in the future
To improve undergraduate course satisfaction by providing real-world experience
To give universities and extra USP for their courses, improving student recruitment
To give students work experience and more to write in their cv and talk about at interviews
To provide NGOs with the opportunity to outsource routine technical work.
Hey Lars, Great to meet you and thanks for your help! Apologies for the delay in reply, they are very good questions and took us a while to wrestle with!
How do you think NGO`s will react to be asked to publish their problems online? ,... and what kind of consequences could that have for them?
Anecdotal evidence would suggest that NGOs, who are often sparsely funded organisations, commonly come across technical problems that require a straightforward solution that they would be better off not having to have to pay a member of staff to do. For instance, a water distribution network would need to be specced before it can be modelled and designed. This is a simple task that saves the NGO money whilst providing invaluable work experience to the students. In brief, if marketed and used appropriately, the platform we envision would offer an incredibly competitive tool for NGOs to save time and funding, while continuing to increase outreach for their work.
What other websites/ organisations/ approaches have you found which support a similar approach and how could you learn from their mistakes?
Engineering and technology plays a pivotal role in many sustainable development NGOs , however, many engineering students do not consider non-profits as their future workplace (add statistics?). At the same time, “voluntourism” is a commonly known issue in the development sector. Our idea is aimed at facilitating student interaction with NGOs while introducing measures of quality control of that engagement to ensure a positive contribution of the students.
EWB’s design challenge run within universities is a great start that can be built upon. Other companies that run student internships/work experience are:
The intern group – Costs students £3000
Virtual internships – costs £1150
Volunteeringmatters.org.uk - great website no engineering opportunities
Charityjob.co.uk - very few non-senior roles for engineers
Onlinevolunteering.org - good opportunities for software engineers, little for others
None of the above have university links
I have the feeling that you didn`t yet define the problem yet and are more focussed on the solution. What would you define as the big problem here?
The problems here are:
NGO’s are underfunded would benefit from free technical assistance (We hope to use an employee time leveraging approach)
Universities struggle to find all students opportunity to get involved in real projects and gain real work experience
Students want work experience and something to talk about at interview to get jobs
Engineering students want to help and find solutions to problems
A lack of sustainable engineering and design for other cultures education within universities
A voluntourism attitude to development work, we want to provide a framework that will ensure students deliver NGO’s with real implementable solutions.
What NGO`s you think are more likely to get on board than others and how would you manage to get those on board?
Although project implementation is not the primary objective of EWB-UK, the Engineers without Borders around the globe would undoubtedly benefit nontrivially from free and easy labour to relieve some of the stress placed on chapters. However, there are countless comparable organisations, including Geoscientists, Chemists, and Astronomers without Borders who do similar work. We also know from experience that larger NGOs, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Dassault systems Foundation commonly actively involves current students in their philanthropic work. On the long term, we envision our platform would primarily target small-scale NGOs on an international basis.