BEng Tech from Teesside University

Hi,

On your point 2, that's impossible to answer without knowing which country you are talking about, every country has a different culture regarding engineering qualifications. If you say which country it is is then someone here might have an idea - but also see my point at the end about job advertisements which is a better way of finding out. 

On point 1, yes. That's really simple. 

On point 3, with the IET your BEng Tech will be fine to get CEng. CEng isn't about your degree, it's about what work you have done in the five to ten years before you apply for your CEng. It's slightly different with the IMechE, they may want to see evidence of further study. But also remember that only a tiny number of jobs require CEng, and by the time you are at the point of applying for those you will probably have the experience to achieve it anyway. I always advise NOT to choose a degree "because it will get CEng". Choose a degree because it's interesting, then you are more likely to do well at it, then you are more likely to get a good / interesting job.

It's not "degree > CEng > good job", it's "degree > good job > CEng".

What I would strongly suggest is that you look at job advertisements in the engineering field and country that you want to work in and see what qualifications (and experience)  they are asking for. That is a much better guide as to whether a particular degree might be the right choice for you.

Good luck,

Andy

As a general thought on questions like these, which are aways coming up on these forums: They always make me imagine all engineering employers gathering together, probably in an underground bunker in a hollowed out volcano, deciding exactly what qualifications they are going to accept. My experience of nearly 40 years of recruiting in very different companies to each other (and talking about it to other engineering managers) is that the truth is very very different - every engineering manager decides for themselves what they are going to look for. Sometimes they are pushed by HR departments to look for certain degrees, but it's almost impossible to guess which those will be, it tends to depend on the past history of the particular company.

Some recruiting managers don't care at all about qualifications, and may actually prefer those with apprenticeship / on-the-job training. Others will pick some random level of qualification if only to reduce 200 CVs to a more manageable 20 or so. A very few will insist on CEng (or "progressing towards CEng"), most won't care (sadly in my opinion), and I have known some to actively reject CEng applicants. There's a lot of personal bias in the process, quite often recruiting engineering managers are looking for people who came up the same route that they did.

The one thing in my experience that they do normally have in common is that what they really want to see is experience. Not because of any collusion to agree on that, but simply because it massively de-risks the recruitment process. Faced with two candidates, one who has done the job before, and one who hasn't, the one who has done it before is going to have a huge advantage.

So the one piece of advice I would always give on choosing courses is to try to find one which somehow will build in some experience. It's tough, because it's very hard (speaking for the UK here) to find employers that will offer places to summer or year in industry placement students. But if you can then you will be shifting the odds into your favour.

There is one slight caveat to all this, major employers in any one industry will of course watch what each other advertise for, and so the big employers who can have structured graduate recruitment programmes may tend to have similar requirements in their job adverts. That's where my point in my reply to Leo comes in, it's worth looking at those in your industry (and country). And also "in demand" industries may require higher qualifications than others - if only because of my point about getting the CVs down to a manageable level - so that's worth checking out. But that doesn't mean a smaller employer, or one in a remote location, or similar won't take you on anyway. Or, as in my case in my first post-university job, a very large employer who is more interested in individual enthusiasm and interest than in bits of paper! 

And there's a good chance, shock horror, that if you took a random group of recruiting engineering managers - or indeed HR departments - in the UK and asked them what the difference was between a BEng Tech and a BEng Hons was, that more than 50% wouldn't know (or particularly care). Universities, and bits of Engineering Institutions, get very excited about things like this. A manager just wants a new starter who's going to grow into a good engineer without either a) breaking too many things along the way or b) leaving to join a competitor as soon as they get good!

Hello Andy,

Thank you very much for your reply; it was really helpful. I just have one additional question to be completely sure. Is it a problem if a degree is not recognised by the Engineering Council or by professional engineering institutions such as the IET or IMechE?

The degree is, of course, fully recognised by the university and the government as a BEng (Tech) Honours degree, but I would like to confirm whether recognition by other organisations is also required.

Kind regards,

Leo B

You can apply for registration with either a recognised degree or an unrecognised degree.  Recognised route applicants are deemed to satisfy the Underpinning knowledge and understanding required so only undergo a competency and commitment assessment. 

Individual route applicants, which account for over 70% of all applications to the IET, under go both the Underpinning knowledge and understanding assessment as well as the competency and commitment assessments. 

You can check with the IET if your degree is recognised by the EngC here or not. 

You can apply for registration with either a recognised degree or an unrecognised degree.  Recognised route applicants are deemed to satisfy the Underpinning knowledge and understanding required so only undergo a competency and commitment assessment. 

Individual route applicants, which account for over 70% of all applications to the IET, under go both the Underpinning knowledge and understanding assessment as well as the competency and commitment assessments. 

You can check with the IET if your degree is recognised by the EngC here or not. 

HI Leo,

As Gerard says, most applicants I help with their applications don't have recognised degrees. In the IET it makes no difference to their applications (it does make a very slight difference to the way those applications are assessed). The IMechE does look for "further learning" that brings the applicant's education up to the same level as a recognised Master's degree, but this can be achieved in many different ways, for example short courses, it doesn't have to be through a further university degree.

For the IET, the Chartership application process is a five page form where you explain how your work shows that you meet the Chartership competences. Because it's only five pages, you don't have much space to show where you got your knowledge from, and that's where having a relevant Master's degree (for example) helps slightly. But plenty of successful applicants who have no degree at all manage to show in those five pages that they've learned equivalent knowledge in their career.  

Universities like using their degrees being recognised as a "selling point", out here in the real world it doesn't mean much. By far the most important thing is to do a course you enjoy and so will do well at.  In fact it does annoy me slightly that some Universities push their courses as providing routes to Chartership, although I can understand why they do it. 

And as I mentioned above, don't let anyone pressure you into thinking you must have a CEng to work as an engineer, more UK engineers aren't CEng than are. It is a really good thing to get when the time is right, because even just going through the process helps you check how professional you are. But if you actually need it for your work then mostly your employer will make sure that you get any support you need to apply.

Really important: If you spend money on an extra degree just to get CEng you will NEVER make that money back on the extra value CEng adds to your career - and in any case as we explained it's not needed anyway. Only go for an extra degree if you think it will get you a better job (or if you're just really interested in the subject!).

Good question,

Andy