Offered as an alternative to Professional Engagement Program 1B (PEP1B), a new unit entitled CHNG2911: Introduction to E-Cigarette Production will be introduced in the second semester of 2023.
PEP was introduced in 2018 to provide undergraduate students skills essential towards the engineering environment, including soft skills and resume writing. Students complete 600 hours of engineering-specific, non-engineering and engineering internship work, and write reflections on such experiences via the digital Sonia platform.
Although the program has good intentions, many students feel as though the content is oddly taught and inconsistent. One PNR resident called the program “unnecessary” and “ill-equipped to teach students about the workforce.”
The alternate unit CHNG2911 first focuses on the electronic properties of vapes, then its mass production, and lastly, how to distribute it among their underage friends. Other students have muttered about selling their home-brew beers alongside the handmade vapes at popular engineering events including ‘Beer n Bangers’ – a main attraction for engineers to get piss-drunk and makeout with each other.
Similar to the PEP program, students are required to submit and write claims on 20 smoking-focused hours to the Sonia platform, in addition to writing a 2000 word essay on the importance of actually paying attention in PEP workshops.
A tutor for the program claims, “I’m so grateful for this new bloody program. Now I don’t need to learn about writing resumes and learn something useful. Between vapes and nuclear weapons, there isn’t really anything else left for us Chemical Engineers to work in.”
Two weeks after contact with the tutor, she mentioned having difficulties breathing from her e-cigarette usage.
More to come…