Warning over shortage of engineering graduates - UK

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19760351

by simonbarker87 • 14 years ago

6 7 14 years ago

bbc.co.uk

I wonder if UK firms are falling in to the same trap as their Silicon Valley counterparts are reportedly falling into and are expecting fresh graduates to hit the ground running without training etc. Industry moves faster than academia and the fundamentals don't change - an electronics grad still need to know the basics and I don't think should be a universities job to also teach the industry leading flavours of the month which may change in 18 months time anyway.

eckyptang2• 14 years ago

This. I did an ee degree. When I hit industry I quickly realised that I knew nothing. The company expected otherwise.

simonbarker873• 14 years ago

Did they have training in place to fill the knowledge gap or (as I fear may be the case) was it considered your problem? What areas did you lack knowledge? I did an EEE degree too so interested to know as I went straight into launching a startup/company

zg• 14 years ago

It's a pity the article wasn't able to dig deeper into the underlying causes.

I would suspect that the problem needs to be addressed much earlier on by both improving the quality of school tuition in engineering required subjects (maths, sciences etc) as well as raising the profile of engineering careers among both children and the general public.

chrisbennet• 14 years ago

I wonder if there is really a shortage of engineers or if there is only a shortage of engineers willing to work for below market pay?

From a market perspective, when there is truly a shortage of "X's" [science Phd's, teachers, engineers, etc] the price/salaries for "X's" go up.

Warning over shortage of engineering graduates - UK

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