Laws of magnetic attraction

More and more students are being pulled towards a challenging and international career in engineering

By Amy McLellan

Published: 16 September 2004

Would-be engineers seeking time out from the education treadmill or itching to taste the working world can pick from a wealth of structured gap year options. Most of the placements are designed to encourage more young people into an industry that in recent years has struggled to attract fresh blood.

"We are trying to encourage more young people to consider a career in the industry," says John Bristow of SEMTA (the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies). "We are trying to get across what real careers are like in the engineering industry."

Engineering can be a hugely rewarding career choice - both in terms of the financial and personal rewards. Not only are salaries attractive for new graduates - ranging from about £18,000 to upwards of £25,000 - but the work can be varied, international and highly satisfying. Be it providing clean water for remote communities, developing MRI machines for brain imaging or working on cutting-edge aerospace projects, a career in engineering promises to be stimulating, challenging and very hands on.

A quick glance at the placements on offer via the Year in Industry scheme highlights the array of jobs that fall under the engineering umbrella. The 700 students accepted onto the gap year scheme may be involved in investigating new coatings for chewing gum, improving rail safety or detecting faulty beer packaging. Students can opt either to live at home or to relocate elsewhere in the UK, working for companies as diverse as Shell, Rolls-Royce, Interbrew and AstraZeneca. They are paid for their efforts - usually £9,000-£12,000 - and about a quarter will go on to be sponsored through university and graduate with a job already bagged.

"This means they are financially better off before, during and after university," says Caroline Durbin of Year in Industry. Students also get degree-relevant experience on their placements. "These are real projects because there's absolutely no point in these very bright students going in to do photocopying for a year," says Durbin.

Kara Cox, now studying biochemical engineering at UCL, saved The Wrigley Company significant sums on the cost of ingredients through her work on the coating process used to create sugar-free pellet chewing gum.

These types of high-tech placements are far removed from the popular perception of engineering as a dirty, heavy business with poor pay and prospects.

"People think engineering's just about oily rags and dirty car bonnets," says Claire Ford of the Smallpeice Trust, which organises gap year placements for young engineers. "But there's a growing realisation that it involves very high-tech subjects, such as biomedics, robotics and forensic science."

John Bristow echoes this. "Engineering does not have to be dirty and heavy. In some parts of industry, the floor's so clean you could eat your food off it."

Indeed, when exposed to the industry, most young people are pleasantly surprised. "When people find out more about engineering, then it becomes a very easy sell," says Ford.

This is certainly backed up by the Institute of Chemical Engineering, which in 2000 launched a publicity campaign to reverse a decline in the number of young people joining the industry. The result? A year-on-year increase in the numbers applying to study the subject.

"We found there was a perception that chemical engineering was dirty, dull and not a professional job," says Lucy Taylor of the whynotchemeng.com campaign. "Yet all the things chemical engineering can offer in terms of job prospects, high earning potential and international travel are things that students are looking for in a career."

Keen to attract newcomers to the industry, most engineering schools are increasingly flexible in their intake needs. Non-scientists and mature students can switch to engineering following a year-long foundation course. It's also becoming increasingly possible to mix-and-match with other options, such as engineering and economics or management.

The perception that engineering is "men's work" is also changing. Increasing numbers of women are forging successful careers in the industry - over the past 20 years the proportion of women on engineering degree courses has increased from 7 per cent to 15 per cent - although there is still room for considerable improvement. Programmes such as the Insight initiative, run by SEMTA, which gives young women a real glimpse into life as a professional engineer, are helping to change the demographic mix.

"This is a unique course which runs every summer for women in the lower sixth, based either in the UK or Finland," explains Bristow. "They meet practising female engineers and spend a week finding out about what professional engineering is really like."

Engineering students seeking to travel and brush up their language skills should contact The Smallpeice Trust, an independent charity which organises European work placements for 30 young engineers a year. The programme includes a month-long intensive language course on the continent plus structured projects in European firms, reflecting the international nature of the industry.

"Engineering is global," says Bristow. "There can be a lot of travel and for some people that's a great attraction."

David Ford of the Royal Academy of Engineering, which under its Engineering Leadership Awards scheme provides high flyers with up to £7,500 to fund a tailored travel and development programme, agrees. "We've had students going off to do research in Detroit and Japan. They tend to have wide horizons very early on," he says.

For more information, see www.smallpeicetrust.org.uk

'It was definitely worth the investment'

Richard Beardmore, studying a four-year electronic engineering degree course (MEng) at Warwick University, spent his gap year on a European engineering work placement organised by the Smallpeice Trust

I found out about the placement through my school. The course started with three months based at Plymouth University. We did team-bonding exercises, jumping in rivers and abseiling and lived together in holiday cottages. It was fantastic and I made some great friends. We did all sorts of engineering at Plymouth - civil, food, mechanical - because it's quite important to be multi-disciplinary: it makes you far more desirable as a future employee. I also picked up a CAD qualification, which has really given me a head start in my degree.

I went to Germany for my placement. People were going all over - France, Norway, Spain, Finland - but I wanted to go to Germany because I'd done GCSE German. I did an intensive language course in Munich, which really built up my vocabulary and grammar skills. Then I spent three months working for Kuka at Augsburg, where I worked exclusively in German. It was the total immersion treatment and my German improved in leaps and bounds.

I worked in Kuka's special machines department, where they build multi-million Euro machines. They specialise in high-tech welding machines and also have a large robotics department. It confirmed that engineering is the career for me.

I would definitely recommend it to someone who was thinking about taking some time out from education. Rather than just sitting on a beach in Australia, I can break the year down and show exactly what I did and what skills I learnt. It's also great because you get to travel and are actually immersed in the country and not just passing through as a tourist. It was definitely worth the investment and I really felt I got value back from the year.