Unit 1: You and Higher Education (Engineering)
The aim of this unit is to assist people in making the transition from Further Education (FE) to Higher Education (HE) as a part of their career progression in engineering, and the attainment of Professional Engineer status.
Many of you will already hold engineering craft or technician qualifications and have varying amounts of experience in a diverse range of engineering environments. However, the move to HE can be traumatic, inevitably challenging and definitely rewarding: the better prepared you are to accept the challenge, the greater the reward.
This unit will help to prepare you for this move by looking at the reasons for studying engineering, ways of studying the subject, and about the engineering profession.
1. What is an Engineer?
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality, safety and cost. The word engineer is derived from the Latin root ingenium, meaning cleverness
It is quite flattering, in some ways, that almost everybody employed in engineering, however remotely, likes to call themselves an engineer! Does this mean (hopefully) they think that being an engineer is something to aspire to or, as is more likely, are they unsure about what an ‘engineer’ actually is?
This uncertainty does not appear to be present in other professions: for example not everybody employed in the legal profession would refer to themselves as a lawyer or barrister; similarly, a large proportion of the people employed by the National Health Service, while fulfilling very important and useful roles, would not consider themselves to be, or refer to themselves as doctors. This begs two questions:
1. Why does this confusion exist in engineering?
2. Does it matter?
The Engineering Council, and the hundreds of thousands of engineers and technicians on its National Registers, are certainly not confused, which also partially answers questions 2 – it matters very much to the people who matter i.e. Professional Engineers and their employers.
Some notable inventions
We are surrounded by ‘man-made’ objects, each one of which started out as an idea in someone’s head, went through the stages of design, prototype, improvement and manufacture, but who made what, and when? See if you can match the article and inventor/developer with the date – some things are a lot older than you might think
Article / Inventor/developer / Date / Date / DateAerosol can / Erik Rotheim / 1926 / 1966 / 1946
Telephone answering machine / Valdemar Poulsen / 1898 / 1922 / 1974
Motorcycle / Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach / 1844 / 1885 / 1910
Photocopying (xerography) / Chester F. Carlson / 1920 / 1937 / 1948
Thermometer / Galileo / 1294 / 1592 / 1647
AstroTurf / James M. Faria & Robert T. Wright / 1952 / 1965 / 1971
Pneumatic tyre / John Boyd Dunlop / 1888 / 1926 / 1944
Integrated circuit (computer chip) / Jack S. Kilby / 1938 / 1958 / 1962
Jet engine / Sir Frank Whittle / 1930 / 1936 / 1942
Skateboard / Bill & Mark Richards / 1952 / 1958 / 1966
Electronic hand-held calculator / Jack S. Kilby / 1967 / 1974 / 1981
Velcro / George de Mestral / 1940 / 1948 / 1960
Frozen foods / Clarence Birdseye / 1888 / 1916 / 1924
Teflon (non-stick stuff) / Roy Plunkett / 1938 / 1968 / 1972
Stapler / George W. McGill / 1812 / 1842 / 1866
Mobile telephone / Bell Laboratories / 1946 / 1966 / 1973
Zipper / Whitcomb L. Judson / 1799 / 1893 / 1923
Internal-combustion engine / Étienne Lenoir / 1859 / 1892 / 1901
Bar code / Joseph Woodland / 1937 / 1952 / 1961
World Wide Web / Tim Berners-Lee / 1979 / 1989 / 1999
Video games / Nolan Bushnell / 1972 / 1976 / 1982
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) / Eugen Baumann / 1872 / 1932 / 1962
Facsimile (fax) machine / Alexander Bain / 1842 / 1888 / 1928
For the answers, check with your tutor or look at the tutor section of the website.
And think about this!
The button was ‘invented’ around 700 BC – the buttonhole appeared sometime in the 13th century!
Candles have been around for about 5,000 years – matches first came to light in 1827
Ice skates were used more than 3000 years ago – roller skates rolled in sometime in the 1760’s
The flush toilet was invented in1591 – toilet tissue followed behind in 1857
Ink has been around since about 2,500 BCE – the Biro first put in an appearance in 1938
The airship was invented in 1852, powered flight in 1903 – the ‘modern’ parachute was invented in 1797. Why?
The ‘land-line’ telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1867 – who did he call?
Jeans were ‘invented’ in 1873, the electric iron in 1882 – must mean something!
The food canning process was developed in 1809 – the can-opener was not invented until 1858.
2. The Study of Engineering
What you do need to know about studying engineering subjects is that there is a lot to learn.
There are many principles and concepts that you will need to grasp, so you will need to be very committed.
There is also a high focus on maths skills, which is why this Section has provided you with links to websites where you can get additional support for those skills. But, in addition to the theoretical knowledge that some engineering students will have to gain in subjects such as fluid mechanics and network analysis, you will also be expected to participate in practical sessions where you will be able to put the theory to test or to perform basic engineering tasks such as shaping metals. If you have moved into higher-level study for engineering from an Apprenticeship you will be already ‘up to speed’ in workshop techniques; if not, then it is important for you to gain an understanding of them.
And while technical knowledge and skills are vital to engineers, we have to pay due regard to the commercial environment in which most engineers operate.
So all engineering degree programmes provide students with an opportunity to gain an understanding of business organisation and operation, and to develop the ‘soft’ skills required make an immediate, positive contribution to organisational objectives. This is well expressed in the following extract:
“No factor is more critical in underpinning the continuing health and vitality of any national economy than a strong supply of graduate engineers equipped with the understanding, attitudes and abilities necessary to apply their skills in business and other environments . . ‘Educating Engineers for the 21st Century’,Royal Academy of Engineering, June 2007
It goes on to say that Engineering businesses need engineers with abilities and attributes in two broad areas:
Technical understanding
- a sound knowledge of disciplinary fundamentals
- a strong grasp of mathematics
- creativity and innovation
- the ability to apply theory in practice
Enabling skills
- communication skills
- team-working skills
- business awareness of the implications of engineering decisions and investments
As well as these skills, an engineer needs to be a problem solver, display initiative, have people-management skills, work safely, be environmentally aware, be innovative etc. etc. etc….
Where could you find such a person? Well, somebody with an engineering degree would be a good start; couple this with an appropriate amount and level of experience in an engineering environment and you have an engineer!
Says who? Says the Engineering Council, because these are the criteria they use to assess people for registration as a professional engineer, either as a Chartered Engineer (C Eng) or as an Incorporated Engineer (I Eng).
During this unit, we will keep referring to the Engineering Council and Professional Engineering Institutions (PEIs) such as the Institution of Engineering Technology, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers or the Institution of Civil Engineers as these are the professional bodies that accredit engineering degrees, that is, recognise a particular degree programme as providing a suitable educational base for registration as an Incorporated or Chartered Engineer. Gaining professional recognition should be a goal of every engineer, in fact, an increasing number of major engineering employers stipulate I Eng or C Eng registration as a requirement for senior engineering positions.
In summary then, Engineering is not solely a hands-on profession. Engineers have to be able to understand and interpret information however it is presented. They also need to be able to write reports and to deliver presentations to others. They also need to be good managers – managing their own time, managing people and managing projects.
3: Careers in Engineering
Engineering is not an easy career to enter and, in addition, there is a view that there is a lot of manual work that takes place in a dirty environment, but this is far from the truth if you examine the roles of modern-day engineers. And the rewards can be great, both financial and in terms of the intrinsic value in the work performed.
Unlike some careers that have gone into decline, because of changing purchasing habits, or the introduction of new technology, the demand for highly skilled engineers will remain high. In a recent (2007) survey conducted by the Royal Academy of Engineering (Educating Engineers for the 21st Century) the feedback from industry was that it expected an increasing shortage of high quality engineers over the next 10 years.
The website Graduates Yorkshirelists some of the many sectors in which it sees growth for engineers in the region
If you would like to read examples of famous engineers and their views on what they would like to see develop over the next 50 years, take a look at ‘Superloos, UFOs and rollercosters: Why Engineering will transform the future’. This was produced, in 2007, by Tsz Fok, a first year Oxford engineering undergraduate at the time. Superloos
Planning a Career in Engineering
If you have already completed Section 1, Unit 2: Career Choice, of the general Trans:it student workbook, you will have learned something about yourself to enable you to make better decisions on what sort of career you might enjoy. If you want to refresh yourself on this Unit, go to: Transit
In Careers Motives you were asked to award points to a number of question pairs. Whatever your score, you could argue that most question pairs could be satisfied by various careers in engineering. It is usually well paid, you could have the ability to exert power or influence, in research you would be able to search for meaning, you could become an expert in a particular field, you could be creative, when working in a team you can build up affiliations with others, you could work independently, you would have reasonable level of security and would certainly gain status from becoming an engineer.
In Your Talents you were asked more detailed questions about your skills and personality. Typical engineers would find that they score higher in the areas of ‘Section C: Practical’, and Section D: Applied Science’. But good engineers will also score highly in ‘Section E: Administration/Management’, while it would also be a huge asset to be able to have a good score in ‘Section G: Influencing’ to enable you to win support from others for your ideas and plans.
Finally, Personality and Work attempted to determine your personality in relation to the type of career that you might like to consider. The module looks at Introversion v Extroversion, how we process information, how we make decisions and how we organise our lives.
There are 16 possible personality types and it is believed that engineers are typically found to be INTP. They take their energy from the inner world of thoughts and prefer dealing with patterns and possibilities, making decisions on a logical basis. Their lives are flexible, following new insights and possibilities as they arise. They are quiet and detached, and adaptable (up to a point - sometimes the INTP will stop adapting, firmly insisting that there is a clear principle at stake). They are not interested in routine, and will often experiment or change things to see if improvements can be made. They operate best when solving complex problems that require the application of intellect. However, while there may be many engineers who may exhibit such traits, you don’t have to have them to make a successful career in engineering. So, just because your results may tend towards other personality types, it does not mean that engineering is not for you. Indeed, if all employees in an engineering organisation exhibited INPT traits, it would probably not last long!
Women and Engineering
As you would have been able to see in Tsz Fok’s booklet, not all engineers are male. Engineering provides a very good career for women, although there are still too few females in the professions. A useful website for females who may be interested in an engineering career can be found at the ‘engineer girl’ websiteand you will find a page containing profiles of a number of female engineers. It’s published by the National Academy of Engineering in the USA, but the material on the site is still relevant to this country. EngineerGirl
A British organisation that is addressing the gender balance is UKRC.UKRC
They are sponsored by the Government and provide advice, services and policy consultation about the under-representation of women in science, engineering, technology and the built environment (SET). A range of support is available, depending on what stage you are at in your career and can be found at the UKRC and Women’s Engineering Society websites. WES
Career Progression
SEMTA, the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies, has produced a very good career progression chart that shows the sort of career that you could expect to follow having gained certain levels of qualification and experience. You can see a copy by downloading it from: Semta
There are many individuals who have moved up the career ladder, starting out on the ‘shop floor’ as an apprentice, gaining higher-level qualifications along the way and eventually heading up large organisations.
Case study – Laura Hancock (age 23)
Laura left school at 17 wanting to gain a career in the electrical industry. Following guidance from Connexions she was placed as an AutoCAD apprentice with John Ryan Partnership. During her training, she had to change employment several times before completing her apprenticeship with her current employer Pitts Wilson, gaining City and Guilds in 2D AutoCAD (Level 3) and an ONC in Building Services. Laura is now studying for an HNC in Building Services at LeedsCityCollege.
When asked about balancing work with college studies, Laura said
“I found that the most difficult aspect was time management. This is because when I got home from work I found it hard to motivate myself to continue working on my assignments. In the past this made me fall behind with my coursework.”
She went on to say “However, I did have the advantage that I could gather information for my assignments from the technical library at work.”
She believes that the work-based route is more beneficial than the full-time higher education route. This is because of the experiences and knowledge she gathered in the workplace helped with the college work and provided real-world applications for the subjects being studied. There are other advantages – a regular salary and, more importantly, the prospect of further employment opportunities and promotion within the company when the HNC has been completed.
She feels that the work-based route removes some of the pressure and uncertainty involved in proving yourself to an employer. Whereas someone who has pursued the academic route to university has to find a job on completion of the course and then prove that they are able to perform the tasks required of them.
Laura is grateful for the support, advice and guidance received, both from her employer, who is also funding the course, and College tutors, in achieving her aims and goals at work and in her academic study.
Case Study – Shantilal Dayalji (age 51)
Shantilal left school at 16 and started an engineering apprenticeship at Benson Verniers. He also studied part-time for the City & Guilds Mechanical Engineering Craft course at BradfordCollege.
Having completed his apprenticeship Shantilal worked in engineering for the next 33 years doing a variety of machine operator, setter and programming-related jobs. Remarkably, during all this time he self-financed and continued to attend College to gain qualifications in Computer Aided Design, Computer & Numerical Control, HNC in Mechanical Engineering, Foundation Degree in Engineering and is currently studying for the BSc in Mechanical Engineering and Management at the University of Bradford, which he will complete in August, 2011.
Asked what was the most difficult aspect of studying, Shantilal said “My main priority, as a bread winner, was to have a job and continue to support my family. But, at the same time, I was encouraged to study further and gain qualifications by my tutors at College. However, this meant that I had to balance family and social life with work and study. As I didn’t receive any employer support to attend college, on occasions I had to use my holiday entitlement to attend classes.”
The route to higher education taken by Shantilal shows his determination to succeed in gaining a BSc in engineering despite all the obstacles. He is hoping that, once he has completed his degree, he will be able to find a job where he can utilise some of the knowledge gained in management.