Virtual Practical Training in Engineering Fields

Abstract

Engineering education is a field of higher education that requires a broad range of practical skills to be offered to the students. The university curricula always involve some periods of work placements in companies, in order to allow students to get the real work experience in fields where they might practice after graduation. Politehnica University of Timisoara has a recognized history of cooperation with the economical area, which embraces research and technological development, where students are many times actively involved together with the academics. The weak point is that this sort of cooperation mainly involves the top students, which will probably embrace a research or academic career after graduation. Still remains the problem of the average student, which will typically embrace an industry career – usually without a strong practical experience and without the practical skills expected by the employer. The university developed through the Center for e-Learning the Virtual Campus, which can be used in order to facilitate online cooperation in training with industrial and academic partners from Romania and from abroad.