Features editor
It’s National Apprenticeship Week, although you could be forgiven for not knowing. For something that’s supposed to be a key part of the UK’s education and training policy, everyone’s been curiously quiet about it. It seems like our old adversary, public perception, is once again causing trouble.
Apprenticeships are an often-neglected but valuable way of starting a career. Ensuring that necessary skills are imparted in a work environment, they used to be a vital component of many industries. They’re still important in engineering. Not everybody has the disposition for academic study. Qualifications achieved while working are just as valid as those earned at a university or college.
Indeed, sometimes those are the same qualifications. For many engineering companies, apprenticeships continue into sponsored courses, both full-time and part time, and the apprentices graduate as part of their career, generally debt-free, and with all the experience, contacts and bank balance of someone who’s been in industry for several years. We’ve heard stories of people coming out of mechanical engineering degree courses who start work not knowing what a gasket is.
So is there still a stigma to apprenticeships? It does seem that way. Even the few press releases we’ve received seem reticent. One tells us that Vince Cable welcomed the expansion of British Airways’ successful apprenticeship scheme, set to take on 120 students this year; this, we’re told, ‘will give more students the opportunity to become full-time employees of British Airways.’ Will it? Will it really? Thanks for telling us. How enthusiastic that sounds. Tempted? Probably not.
Perhaps the problem is to do with the breadth of apprenticeships. You can become an apprentice at companies as diverse as BAE Systems, McDonalds, and probably Supacuts hairdressers down the road. Some of these sound more tempting than others. There’s also a lingering suspicion about it; something of the whiff of the widely-derided Youth Training Schemes of the 1980s, which were seen as a pretext to keep 16- to 24-year-olds off the unemployment figures, and (often, but not always, unfairly) as a licence for employers to exploit cheap labour while providing minimal training.
There are things that could be done to correct this. One of them might be to provide schools with some more incentive to guide pupils towards apprenticeships, if that’s the appropriate route for them. At the moment, university entrances are counted on the school league tables; apprenticeships could also be factored into the scores. Definitely, schools need more information about apprenticeships, what they are, and what they offer: some reassurance of the equivalence of apprenticeships with different organisations would be useful.
There needs to be a perception that starting an apprenticeship is not a failure. While readers of The Engineer are united in thinking that UK society needs to put a higher value on the status of engineers, we also need to recognise that there are many routes to achieving that position, and all of them are valid.
An apprenticeship is vital in engineering. The issue is later in life, when armed with many years of relevant expertise you find that graduates with no experience are shooting over you for promotion and pay. Big companies ignore the experienced and pay them very badly and pay over the odds for graduates with no knowledge. My advice is GO FOR A DEGREE AND DO IT THE EASY WAY. The pay and progression is possible that way – the experience route should be the best but now the EXEC’s in HR have crapped on us all. JLR
Little is done to promote apprenticeships. My old school could tell me all I needed to know about uni but nothing about an apprenticeship.
I chose an apprenticeship over going to university 7 years ago and have never regretted that decision espeically as i have a good job now and no big debt hanging over my head.
As an advocate of apprenticshipes i try to give back what i got out of it and help with engineering programmes in schools as a way to open pupils eyes to other options.
Apprenticeships, I believe are the key to UK engineering and manufacturing.
I myself completed a mechanical apprenticeship with a company called TTE in the NW, all of which was company sponsored. I left with an NVQ 3 in Process Engineering and an ONC in Mechanical Engineering and progressed to do a HNC. I am now 25 and have a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and also starting my MSc in Mech Eng. All has been support by the company and with their training program and support I am on the way to be come a Plant Engineer.
Some would say that this is not what all companies want as with the aging profile they need hands on workers, and I know plenty who completed the apprenticeship and are some of the best Fitters, Electricians out there.
Apprenticeships are the back bone to good companies creating good hard working employees, which in turn expands the engineering market, and more does need to be done to publish them. Especially when most people believe an Engineer in the UK is a car mechanic!!!!!!
The problem isn’t just employers. Some idiot in government years ago decided that an abitrary 50% of all secondary school students should go to university. The end results?
1. every college out there became a “university” overnight
2. many degrees are now not worth the paper they’re printed on
3. we as a country have “dumbed down” our education system and are seen as having done as much by other countries and employers overseas
4. you cannot get hold of a fitter or a plumber for love nor money
Bring back (real) apprenticeships (they’re still required), move some of the so-called “universities” back to being technical colleges etc. Manufacturing in this country is not dead (despite what we’re constantly told) and there is a future for it if we go back to basics!
I am a trainer with a major provider of engineering apprenticeships in the North-West. Last night we had our annual open evening and the number of prospective applicants was significantly higher than in recent years. It appears that the message of the value of apprenticeships is starting to be heard. I hope that this is not just because young people (or their parents) are running scared of university courses and perceptions of debt, however, because we need a range of options available in engineering education to suit all.
This new coalition government has been saying the right things about apprenticeships and appears to want to encourage their growth and wider uptake. My concern is that this area may be being developed (or appear to be so) at the expense of higher education. It would be cynical in the extreme of this government if part of its strategy for encouraging the uptake of apprenticeships was to make the university degree route less attractive through funding removal and simultaneous hikes in tuition fees. There is a role for all options, not just because we have a duty to provide choice to young people, but also because we need the skill-balanced workforce that different education routes provide.
Whilst encouraged that apprenticeships are seen in a favourable light I would find it objectionable if people were forced in this direction because they could not afford, yet had the calling and talent for, some other route that would allow them to develop in a different way. I want to work with people on my apprenticeship programme who have chosen it for all the right reasons, not because financially it is their only option.
On 26 October 2010, John Hayes made an encouraging speech to The Royal Society of Arts on the value of hands-on skills and ‘craftsmanship’. In this he extolled the virtues of using ones hands and hinted at how our society undervalues practical skills.
“People speak of the intellectual beauty of a mathematical theorem. But there is beauty, too, in the economy and certainty of movement of a master craftsman. I believe that both kinds of beauty must be recognised on their own terms. And that implies not that the stock of academe must fall, but that the stock of craft must rise” he said then. This suggested unequivocally that both routes were valued.
He also said in the same speech “In my view, the skills of a bricklayer are in no way less admirable and certainly no less hard-won than those of a stockbroker. And admired is what they should be. For each feel value, all feel valued.” Nice line, Mr Hayes, but it’s not bricklayers who ‘earn’ 6-figure bonuses.
I hope that the government keeps making the right noises and turning these into positive actions for our sector. And I hope it will come to realise too, hopefully quickly, that this strategy will only work if those of us who are already the trained generation, the teachers, the trainers and the existing craftsmen and craftswomen, are respected, valued, and paid handsomely for their true worth to this nation’s prosperity and survival. We are at the coalface doing it, every day, right now, but it’s hard, back-breaking, poorly-paid work down here in the dark.
It’s all well and good going for a degree but in my experience degree holders do not want to get their hands dirty.
Who is going to do their dirty work if we don’t have apprenticeships?
I agree entirely with Richard in that it would seem that employers are advertising for graduate positions but even worse than that, once an apprentice has completed his / her training, companies seem reluctant to fund further study to degree level, the level they are actually insisting on to fill their own posts.
Is this because they are frightened that once armed with a Degree AND Expierence the apprentice is in such a stronger position to fly the nest.
“It’s all well and good going for a degree but in my experience degree holders do not want to get their hands dirty.
Who is going to do their dirty work if we don’t have apprenticeships?”
I agree, but because I did my degree after my apprentiship and come from a mechanical background I am very hands on as an engineer. I see full time students on my course and the idea of touching a spanner (for those that actually know what one is) is horrid!!
I would agree with apprenticeships generally, but would note their pitfalls which are considerable. Much of this is the way qualifications are achieved these days, and the lack of practical experience from degree qualified staff.
Too much emphasis is based on a Degree and apprentices have largely been ignored which puts an emphasis on paperwork above practical skills. Practical skills appeal to a much wider segment of the population who may lack the intelligence or inclination to do a degree, but are excellent at what they do. It is this imbalance which needs addressing.
A graduate may be able to design a machine, but can they fabricate it, weld it, and make all the components? NO, most cannot. If we allow this situation to carry on we will have a lot of theorists but no practical skills, another imbalance.
Degree qualifications need looking at in detail, the watered down Degrees of today do not compare with the older degrees. Those of us of a “certain age” are often dismayed at what those with a modern watered down degree do not know, but should know. It would appear thet the basics are not taught as they should be, and this is detrimental to engineering and the holder of the qualification.
My personal opinion is that we should go back in time and do what we used to, as it worked.
People start as apprentices, they learn their craft and develop practical skills from experienced staff. If they make the grade, they go on to do a degree on merit and not on a school or other qualification.
Abuse of qualifications is another issue, many go for a Degree unrelated to their field because it is easy, the sociology degree is a fine example. They do it to hold a degree and abuse the system financially as they still cost to do. They then approach an employer with a worthless degree unrelated to a profession, and get a position based on a degree.
Once again, as we always have to, we seem to be defending the position in society of engineers. I have been in a job that I love for 45+ years and things have never changed. Position is status quo.
I trained in an apprenticeship scheme during the early 1970’s, position called professional engineer trainee. For various reasons training took seven years to complete and with only one of the years being even remotely university based. Gaining chartered status was, and is, a real honour.
In the words of the staff that I am now responsible for, I am a very good boss. Fair and reasonable usualyy, hard when necessary.
Until industry back off from paper chasing and employ HR staff that KNOW the needs rather than being capable of computer cv sorting, apprenticeships, whether “blue white or professional collar” will never locate real talent from the younger generation. Perception of the youngsters will always be “it is hard” to engineer, when in fact it is actually fun to learn. Convince the youngsters of this and they can achieve high rewards for success and they will flock in droves.
I definately believe in apprenticeships and hold strong beliefs that those that go to Uni and get a degree believe they are above those that do get their hands dirty. At the age of 41 I started a degree course with the OU in Engineering……despite years of experience I am “between contracts” and cant wait to get back into work – There is nothing wrong with learning but as one of the comments has said, there is lots of info about uni’s and precious little about apprenticeships whether at school or college for the youth of today. My Girlfriends son who has just turned 16 is currently doing an IMI course in Light Motor Vehicle repair and is set on doing an apprenticeship………but there is no information at the school, the local college has said he cant progress any further in his chosen career until he gets an apprenticeship……After many hours of surfing the net I found a website that gave us information of local companies that had an apprenticeship scheme in Motor Vehicle repair…….in West Berkshire there was 1!! Something has to be done from all sides to promote apprenticeships otherwise we as a nation will become unskilled and only a customer service centre for the rest of the world.
I am currently on an apprenticeship scheme and will be completing my four years in the next month or so. Not only have I gained priceless experience along the way but I am currently in my second year of a part time degree. Compared too many of my friends who went to university I am one of the only ones in full time employment. I do agree that more work based learning is needed, many uni students I have met don’t know the right end of a hammer. I will say that I struggled for nearly two years to find and apprenticeship, It has got easier over that last few years but they are still very few and far between imo.
I have watched this argument ebb and flow for years.
When I was 16, I wanted to do an apprenticeship, and do the night school, learn on the job etc. etc. Could I find an apprenticeship? There was nothing in North West England 1981.
I tried again at 18, again nothing.
Therefore, I was pushed into the academic route, and off I go into the big bad world of engineering.
All through my career I have been made to feel as though the lack of an apprenticeship has been a major stumbling block, through no fault of mine. So if those of us with the good degrees and further degrees do leap frog others with the apprenticeship but without the degree, don’t get bitter – get even.
In NZ a few years ago the Government championed the “knowledge wave” where entrepeneurs could come up with these wonderful ideas and production lines and so on and so forth. Great. Until you have no one in the country who can build them. Or maintain them. The apprenticeship scheme here has been seriously undermined and I predict in the not too distant future, we will have to be targeting tradesmen immigrants as we did in the 70’s. A university education is great, but at the end of the day, who is it they need to be running the cables, wiring the switchboards or unblocking the drains. Tradesmen. Who were taught through the old fashioned apprenticeships.
Trouble with apprenticeships these days is that, like ‘degrees’, they are available in almost anything, and there is nothing on the face of it to differentiate between real ones (such as Engineering crafts) and the Walt Disney variety.
Radio advertising doesn’t help – when a youngster hears an advert for an ‘apprenticeship’ in being a call-centre operative or a shelf-stacker, is it any wonder that these people aren’t attracted to Engineering to learn a skilled trade?
Like degrees, apprenticeships generally have been well and truly dumbed-down, therefore de-valuing their original purpose.
I find it truly disheartening that successive governments haven’t seen fit to halt the slide of UK educational standards generally, and have the gall to claim the opposite.
Once again the tiresome discussion about apprenticeships begins by implying that we dont need university educated engineers because they haven’t a clue about anything practical. Anyone who thinks that graduates dont know what a gasket is or are too posh to dirty their hands with a spanner clearly doesn’t know what they are talking about. Take the time to chack the REQUIREMENTS of an engineering degree placed on both the university and the professional bodies to provide courses that the rest of the world flocks to study on. Do you care that nearly 90% of postgrads are not British? BOTH my sons are currently on MENg Mechanical Engineering degrees, I their mother am a Chartered Engineer and both their grandfathers & great grandads served engineering apprenticeships. My brother is a qualified electrician and works in a technical job in a consultant engineers and earns 6 figures -more than any of the guys I worked with in the electronics industry.
My sons went to crap state schools and are going to graduate with £50K of debt before any fees increase. Are companies going to recruit people with debts of £75K from a 4 year course and make it worthwhile? Do any of you know why apprenticeships fell out of favour with young people and employers? I know all the research about why the courses died. I expect you still think its a boys only profession when women can succeed anywhere else. Do you care that almost all the boys at the best engineering departments went to private schools? Now state school kids are going to be told not to get a degree but to get an apprenticeship because its the same. Well students are working their socks off and trying to get impressive things like Formula Student; sports and work experience for some charity onto their CV to get a job when they graduate. meanwhile sanctimonious men being paid to get covered in oil everyday are learning nothing that makes them capable of designing the technologies of the future. Those F1 teams have guys with PhDs in aerodynamics that you look down on. Why should they study so hard for you? You blokes have stood by and let engineering become a dirty word and countless thousands of jobs disappear without taking any view of the enormous opportunity other countries see. Visit a top university engineering department and the technical college I did MY engineering diploma at when I was 16 and tell me they are the same.
I come from a German background and it is appalling to look at the status of apprentices in this country. When I left secondary school having completed my Abitur (baccaulareate), 60 % went on to uni and 40% started an apprenticeship. These apprentice numbers are on top of the other half of school leavers who attended lower schools. It is literally unheard off for somebody leaving school at 16 or 18 – not going to uni – to not start an apprenticeship. Apprenticeships are not limited to the highly regarded engineering sector but also flourish in many other industries including the financial sector and very small businesses. Young people doing well and having the appropriate qualifications go on to universities. This combination is highly regarded by industry and beats the university only educated ones every time. As a result many trademanships are of a higher quality in Germany than they are here. You just have to look at the heating installation sector. To get into this you have to complete an apprenticeship first. If you want to run your own company, you then complete 7 years of gruelling evening classes before you can call yourself a master. ONLY then you can think about starting up your own business. Maybe time to rethink apprenticeships in this country.
Teresa:
I will answer your questions, apprenticeships died because of society, and a lack of understanding. Most youngsters prefer vanity and earning as much as they can without working or achieving, it usually means fame. How many young girls would have breast implants to emulate Jordan, a foul mouthed egotistical slapper who will attract fame any way she can.
How many young males strive to become footballers, and so called (alleged) celebrities as they all see money as the key to success and respect.
It is the superficial vanity, and the new ways they attract this fame which is the greatest problem.
What has gender got to do with engineering, both sexes have opportunities to enter engineering. If women choose not to do so how can men be blamed, maybe a little bias on your part.
Much of the problem is imbalance, and one bought about by politics above most others, we are lacking tradesmen now, and for the future. Apprenticeships need bringing back to the fore, and anyone serving an apprenticeship should have the opportunity to progress if they make the grade.
I too have many years of engineering experience, and the pre-requisite qualifications, and served a full degree. If companies underwrite apprenticeships they often bear the cost, so no or little student debt. The major problem is we have an imbalance of theorists to technical skills, it is this which you fail to grasp. And yes i have seen this first hand considerably more than i would have liked, and one reason i would like to redress the balance.
Apprenticeships offer much more, many do not have the capability or inclination to study for a degree, but are excellent tradesmen with lots to offer, Therefore it opens up engineering to a greater number who want to study general engineering, or a specific field. I too object to the dumbed down qualifications, and yes i have seen those with them struggling with basics they should have learned.
It is all of these factors, and many more which are not fair on employers, or the holders of such qualifications. It is also the reason the UK engineering sector is becoming a laughing stock.
I very much agree with Simon Martin. I also think it would be good if employers gave an option of apprenticeships for the more mature person, who maybe at this point in time have just been made redundant and find they need to change their career or trade. Or even for those leaving the armed forces and need some skills more relevant to ‘civvy street’.
For myself, I started my engineering career rather later in life than most, as I had spent 11 years in the armed forces after leaving school and then another 10 years figuring out what to do with myself when I left. At the point when I decided to go for a degree in engineering I had a young family, so had to go the part time route, starting with an ONC and a job as a trainee machinist with day release. 8 years and several other jobs later (as some companies will not fund further than HNC. Not always jobs with day release either, had to work nights for a year), I now have an honours degree in Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering and lots of experience to back it up. I wouldn’t change this method but trying to keep up the enthusiasm and motivation for 8 years is very hard and takes its toll.
A decent and proper apprenticeship, accompanied by day release to a technical college, or followed by a degree if applicable (or relevant) is, in my opinion, better than so called universities churning out graduates (for an extortionate fee), who have never heard of the work ethic, have no idea about the workplace or even how to interact with their work colleagues.
It also sorts out those that really want to pursue a career in engineering. By the time they reach a management position they will (hopefully) know how to manage their workforce properly, effectively and efficiently.
I can dream, can’t I?
Once again the usual hackneyed stereotypes about “posh graduates” and “hard-working, honest apprentices” come out. Typical of the cynical, bitter attitude I’ve come to expect from those of a “certain age” who seem to think that the world reached its zenith some 40 years ago and has been declining ever since.
Probe a little further, and it usually turns out this bitterness stems either from a) a failed university application or b) being passed over for promotion, recognition etc by a younger person, probably one smarter than themselves.
Ironic that the generation responsible for some of history’s most conspicuous consumption should now start lecturing on the merits of “honest, hard work”.
I’m afraid the youth of today can see straight through that. Degree-qualified engineers combine theoretical rigour with practical skill, something the previous generation consider an impossibility.
Roll on their retirement.
All valid comments. But you are preaching to the converted!
The future of Britain – increasded manufacturing – needs a successful and stimulating programme in schools to promote apprenticeshiops and to make youngsters want to be creative and to have pride in working with their hands and minds. The need and worth of maths and physics is not sold – because insufficient engineers teach.
So is there still a stigma to apprenticeships?
Yes, as there has been a push from many including the Government for nearly all young people to attend University. This has had a negative impact on the Apprenticeship, in that many youngsters could view this as a lower valued role in the workplace that someone who comes in as a Graduate.
Employers also need to take on their portino of the blame, in that how many companies have been to busy looking at the short term and not been looking towards their future employees. Where are the competent Technician, Designers etc supposed to come from, if no one is training any. My company (Clark Eriksson) recognised this and started one apprentice 4 years ago, and another two are just about to just in 2 weeks time. These apprentices are our future and all companies need to recognise this and start again the excellent apprenticeship programs that existed all over the UK over 15 years ago.
I work at City & Guilds, responsible for apprenticeships in this area. I’d be pleased to hear from anyone about this subject.
Where to begin when there are so many strands to pick up and follow – Apart from Andy Buckingham’s, Teresa Schofield’s and Teresa’s (I assume Teresa Schofield?) comments most comments miss the point; It is not just about Engineering Apprenticeships, it is also about:-
1) The numeracy, mathematical, science and engineering skills of our school leavers and their perspective of career options option’s starting with ‘training’ teachers out of the belief Engineers aren’t car mechanics!
2) Technology in school having Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering as subjects.
3) Girls forming 50% of our school population meaning it is about making girls aware that Engineering is a valid career options for them as well both as professional Engineers and Engineering Apprentices.
4) Employers providing Engineering Apprenticeships that are appropriate routes to producing Skilled Tradesmen and not just cheap labour force as some apprenticeships seem to.
Background – I am a Chartered Engineer and a professional Metallurgist and Welding Engineer and from the 1980 till 2010 I was a Neighbourhood Engineer and then a Science and Engineering Ambassador working in partnership with local Primary and Secondary schools to make Maths, Science and Engineering interesting and enjoyable so that children would select Maths, Science and Engineering as subject choices.
In the 1960’s I studied General Engineering Science, Physics, Chemistry and Biology to GCE ‘O’ level but General Engineering Science disappeared from the curricula as an academic subject but in the 21st century engineering subjects are making a comeback as academic subjects thanks to the special status that began in the late 1980’sand early 1990’s with the Schools of Science and Technology established by Margaret Thatcher’s Government outside LEA control and hated by LEA ‘Jobsworths’ seeking to control and dumb down! My son was lucky to go to one such school, the Priory LSST, where he enjoyed studying Technology and where every child doing GCSE’s went on to do GCE ‘A’ levels and on to University.
At the same time my former employer was struggling to find sufficient good apprentices as maths and science abilities of 16 year old school leavers was inadequate AND the best from the selection available choose to work at the local Tesco Superstore as ‘Trainee Managers’ for more money than an Engineering Apprenticeship could pay! HAS TESCO’s EVER APPOINTED SUCH A TRAINEE MANAGER AS A MANAGER? Or is it just modern HR ‘speak’ to give people fancy inflated titles as an ego boost as a non pay perk!
I don’t know what my company did salary wise to attract the best apprentices BUT the Company did identify a major problem with school leaver abilities that had to be improved if the Company was to prosper as an Engineering Company in a small county town. We could recruit our graduates from any where in the world BUT had to recruit and grow our workforce from the output of local schools that did not go away to University. As a result my Company created a small Department to support local schools and placed a middle manager from manufacturing in charge and a senior HR employee as administrator. They adopted a twin track approach by:-
1) Working in partnership with failing local secondary schools to develop special status in Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering and funding the initial £50,000 industrial support to gain the additional £150,000 state funding to set up special status and generate additional annual funding.
2) Encouraging Engineering employees, especially young Engineers to sign up as Science and Engineering Ambassadors (SEA’s) and working with the local SEA administration team to deploy an Engineer to every Primary School and teams of Engineers to each secondary school in the county town and support schools in the County as required.
Partnership working included working with County Schools to provide relevant industrial support packs and projects to support the Manufacturing and Engineering courses being taught at GCSE and GCE ‘A’ level as well as providing appropriate work’s visits, classroom support and work experience placements.
Management support for company employed SEA’s to get flexi-time absence away from the work place assisting schools during work hours and providing funding for SEA activities by funding equipment, providing secretarial support and providing grants of up to £1000 to support projects for various awards schemes like the Crest Award scheme.
SEA activities ranged from the Junior Engineer For Britain competition for Primary Schools, weekly after school Science Clubs and Engineering Clubs through to Science/Engineering days and Crest Awards and mainly involved.
In return, my former employer significantly improved the provision and image for Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering and their teaching within secondary schools both the County town and the surrounding county both as a GCSE subject and an academic ‘A’ level subject of choice in the more forward looking schools. The provision of relevant industrial support packs, works visits, classroom support and work experience placements prepared the children studying the courses to work for us raised the profile of our company among students as a career choice at all levels of entry whilst the activities of the Science and Engineering Ambassadors (SEA’s) in schools helped increase the numbers studying Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering in local schools.
All the SEA activities I have been involved in have been both fun and educational (both ways) and resulted in two main observations:-
1) Teachers, even science teachers, have no idea what Engineering is or what Engineers do career wise or what they do for us beyond being car mechanic’s – No wonder children don’t select Engineering for a career unless they have an Engineer in the family like Theresa Schofield!
2) That at Primary School girls are equally interested in and able at doing Science and Engineering BUT somehow between starting secondary school in year 7 and GCSE choices in year 9 girls seem to sign up for conventional gender stereo types for careers and ignore Science and especially Engineering as a career choice.
At the start of every SEA activity I have ever done, I have given a brief introduction to the differences between Science and Engineering. I have then challenged the children present to identify anything that they can see in the classroom that hasn’t been engineered or can’t be engineered. Eventually they give up on inanimate objects and pick plants and people and one can identify bio-engineering starting with using Darwinian ‘Natural Selection’ for selective breeding through to Genetic Modification, Cloning and Test Tube babies on one hand to glasses, hearing aids through medical implants and medical prosthesis on the other. I have then finished the introduction discussing the careers available from Research through Development to Product Development and Manufacture and how essential maths is to understand, explain and implement the Science and Engineering concerned.
Where appropriate we have also discussed the difference entry routes into the Engineering profession ranging from Apprentice to Degree level entry and the role of life long learning adding skills and knowledge and how even following the implementation of SARTOR an Apprentice can rise to Chartered Engineer by studying with the Open University.
For example, I am to retire in 8 years time and I am to train a replacement Principal Welding Engineer at EWE/IWE and C.ENG level for my Employer. The trainee is a former apprentice of 22 and has agreed his training route via Welding Specialist (HNC Fab&Weld, EWS/IWS and Tech.Eng. level) and Welding Technologist (B.Sc., EWT/IWT and I.Eng.) to Welding Engineer (M.Sc. or M.Eng., EWE/IWE and Eur.Ing./C.Eng.) in accordance with the requirements of EN719 and ISO14731. The trainee started his HNC Fab&Weld in 2010, he will obtain his B.Sc. & M.Sc. or M.Eng. degree by studying with the Open University and will obtain his EWS/IWS, EWT/IWT and EWE/IWE diplomas by studying the EWE/IWE diploma at the Welding Institute.
Why all this talk of Degrees? i went into my apprenticeship to actually make something, something i do with pride, i do not need to sit on commitees or do presentations, or attend at least 5 meetings a day. We cannot all be chiefs, there must be indians, who produces all the items designed by our innovators? who is supposed to make the prototypes and the tooling and eventually the final product? The actual makers of your innovation are becoming as rare as rocking horse sh*t (this is a technical term)and this is the skill base that needs repleting as we cannot outsource all of the time, we need to build in house (in the UK) we are falling behind in this area because Engineering is now run by accountants not engineers. We have been F**ked up (another technical term) by those only interested in profits, not the prolification of British Engineering and the British Apprenticed Craftsmen. Therefore we need to put the future first, not profits, we must not just become a nation of shopkeepers, only selling foreign imported engineered products.
As a person who started out as an apprentice and who has attained a post-grad degree in Engineering through work based study, I can say the apprenticeship process is not given the credit it desreves.
Although unglamourous and often overlooked by school leavers and career advisers alike, an apprenceship builds:
1-an eye for detail that acedemia cannot provide.
2-a real-world view in the application of sciences and technology.
3- the people skills needed to progress an enterprise.
4- adaptability and ability to act independantly towards a common goal.
All these things together provide a catch-all skilled person that is in very short supply in industry. Acedemia cannot provide these things because they come from experience in the real world rather than research and testing the boundaries of probability.
A return of the ‘graduate apprentice’ would be a huge benefit to industry in Britain.
I owe so much to the engineering apprenticeship training that I received in the late 70s. While the sector spat me out in the early 80s and women on the scene seemed still too unusual for another employer to employ me at that time, I would not make a different choice even now.
I have to say that having been on the end of the telephone trying to provide information to parents and young people about engineering choices, the difficulty in actually locating a position for anyone “not in the know” is still a major challenge. I am talking here about enthusiastic, intelligent people desperate to find an apprenticeship and aware of what it entails but finding it impossible to negotiate the minefield of where to actually locate a position.
I hope that some people trying to find an apprenticeship in engineering read this article and express their frustration (as they often did to me) at the handwringing and comments that nobody is interested in engineering apprenticeships when it is their dream that they learn and gain a skill through this route.
I served my apprenticeship as a miller/toolmaker. Later I went to university and did an undergraduate degree in Physics then a Masters in Engineering the finally an engineering doctorate. I must say that it was the experience of my apprenticeship that has taken me through my career the academic stuff is just padding. I am now a physics and engineering lecturer and I work with academics and vocational lecturers also. I can blend in any field quite easily. Although I still like making things and tell my students that it is always worth finding out how things work. Nearly everyone of them doesn’t have a hobby (even the engineering students who have no practical kills at all)