MAKERS: Providing real-world practice-based learning for students in a repair café to enable a just transition to net zero
Fogg Rogers, Laura; Corbett, Kat; Lewis, Hollie; Butchers, Joe
Authors
Dr Laura Fogg Rogers Laura.Foggrogers@uwe.ac.uk
Associate Professor in Knowledge Exchange in Engineering
Kat Corbett
Hollie Lewis
Joe Butchers Joe.Butchers@uwe.ac.uk
Lecturer in Engineering Principles
Abstract
There is a growing need for employees with the necessary skills to deliver a just transition to net zero through sustainable technologies, infrastructure, and practices. Practice Based Learning (PBL) provides a suitable teaching method to develop sustainability-literate graduates by emphasising real-world problem-solving and student-centred investigation. This method fosters holistic systems thinking, interdisciplinary insights, ethical considerations, and develops professional skills and competencies for employment. Furthermore, research indicates that technical activities which draw on wider societal or environmental purpose (communal goals) are more attractive to women, while hands-on maker projects have also been shown to improve identity and agency for black men. These insights were utilised in the design of the MAKERS project (Making and Knowledge Exchange for Repair and Sustainability), which developed a repair café on a university campus. Over the course of 18 months, the project held 14 repair Cafés on campus, along with 16 workshops in three communities, involving 17 community organisations. This paper presents the student evaluation data from the project, exploring experiences of engagement as well as skills development for future work in a circular economy. From the student volunteers who attended, 61% were male and 39% were female (compared to 16% women in the UK Engineering workforce). Interview responses from students indicated the repair café enabled them to express their individuality and belonging in engineering. Inter-generational skills sharing was valued, developing employability skills and professional competencies required in the UK Specification for Engineers. The project indicates that hands-on repair enables engineering education which is purposeful for real world contexts as well as enhancing employability for diverse engineering graduates. This paper shares the findings and recommends repair cafés as spaces to develop hands-on technical as well as interpersonal skills for students, while meeting community repair and reuse needs for sustainable development.
