Science and TechnologyWritten evidence submitted by Blast Absorption Systems Limited
1. As a chartered engineer who is trying very hard to make a go of a new high technology materials startup company, and one who also tries to make use of people with engineering skills to maintain his boat and perform other tasks, I am very concerned about the fact that I seem to be unable to find competent, hard working engineers who have been through the English state education system in the last couple of decades. Instead, the only competent people I can find, whether engineers or technician engineers, are either of my own elderly generation or are the products of foreign education systems. The one exception is the CEO of our fledgling company, but I have to say that she is not of English ethnic origin and benefitted from winning a scholarship to a traditional English public school. As regards the relative importance of chartered engineers with degrees, and technician engineers with vocational qualifications based on apprenticeships, both roles are equally important. I would not expect a technician to be able to invent the materials we are developing, but equally, I would not expect a chartered design engineer, including myself, to know how to safely maintain the brakes on a heavy goods vehicle, or investigate, strip down and successfully rebuild an engine.
2. I do not think that changing the structure of engineering qualifications and exactly what goes into a degree makes much difference. Having spent too many years of my youth—nine years in all—at the University of Cambridge, I am convinced that the only real way to acquire real engineering knowledge is to do it, because it was only when I started to tackle real problems that I really learned to be an engineer. Fortunately, I realised this while still at university and went out of my way to get placements during vacations. On one occasion I joined the university officer training corps and got onto a workshop course through the Royal Engineers and on another occasion, talked my way into the engineering company my father worked for. In addition, I started an engineering enterprise while undertaking my doctoral research, encouraged by my research supervisor, who himself came from an industrial background. Whatever happened to sandwich course degrees?
3. The skills of Scottish engineers are legendary. Engineering degree courses in Scotland tend to take four years as opposed to three and eligible Scottish domiciled students studying full-time in Scotland are not required to pay tuition fees. Scottish engineering can be expected to maintain its traditional high standards.
5. The Government could greatly raise the status of technical subjects by legislating severe punishments for anyone calling themselves an engineer who is neither a chartered engineer nor a technician engineer. Doctors who are not properly qualified are not allowed to practice medicine and the same should apply to engineers.
6. One way of attracting and retaining a more diverse technically skilled workforce would be to broaden apprenticeship schemes. I recently spent a fascinating evening with Roger Greensted, the managing director of F H Browne and Sons in Ash near Canterbury in Kent. This firm rebuilds pipe organs, applying modern computer technology, materials and manufacturing techniques to a very traditional industry. Mr Greensted told me that although he has taken on a young man, he cannot give him a proper apprenticeship because there is no category for pipe organ rebuilders. What the firm does falls into the category of applying electromechanical engineering ingenuity to old problems, which is a very general and useful skill to acquire. We have a large number of similar companies in this part of the world that work in niche areas with great success, but which use similarly general skills which are highly transferable. Is there not some way in which apprenticeships can be organised for these businesses, regardless of bureaucratic difficulties in categorising them?
7. Much of the present problems with training engineers start, in my opinion, in the state school system. As a volunteer STEM ambassador I get the impression that pupils in state schools are expected to be entertained and “Stimulated” rather than educated and taught the importance and benefits of working hard. From conversations I have had with teachers, I get the impression that the requirements of Ofsted and their inspections are responsible for a lot of this. A return to traditional values and methods while taking advantage of the capabilities of modern technology to provide visual aids that my generation could only dream of, must be of benefit. Furthermore, since coursework offers so many opportunities for input by teachers and parents and plagiarism from the Internet, the only valid way of establishing knowledge should be, as before, by conducting rigorous examinations.
8. Finally, if the government or anyone else wants more young people to become engineers, they should make it more financially attractive. For a start, outstanding students engaging on engineering courses should not be charged fees. I personally benefitted from having an entirely paid for university education, but I did get three A grades at “A” level, with scores which I was told were in the 90s, plus a college Exhibition from the Cambridge entrance examination.
June 2012