Skills on demand

More engineers are turning to 'virtual training' via the internet in a bid to balance the need to acquire new skills with the demands of busy working lives, according to specialists working in the field.

The increasing power and sophistication of web-based tools is allowing professional and student engineers alike to carry out work via a computer that would previously have required their presence in a laboratory or workshop.

A project is underway at

to create a program that will allow electronic engineering students to construct and simulate electronic circuits online, while

has been operating an online physics laboratory for about two years.

'Virtual learning environments (VLEs) are a growing trend in engineering and sciences. They ought to be growing faster still, but there hasn't really been sufficient exposure for people to realise what they can do in the context of their own interests,' said Reading's Dr John Macdonald.

The type of VLEs Macdonald is referring to are those that are real-life laboratory set-ups, known as interactive screen experiments (ISEs).