U.K. ENGINEERING 2016 REPORT

I have only just recently applied to be professionally registered myself even though I have been a memeber of the IET since my student days. Partially this late application is due to NOT having joined a structured training programme with a bluechip engineering comany straight out of university. But I feel I could possibly have applied or registration some years earlier. However, some of my former employers and to some extent colleagues have not always been supportive. Many were not members of the IET and were not registered. I sometimes got comments such as "why bother, you don't need it for the job", "you won't get paid more even if you get CEng registered", "you just end up having to pay more in fees to the IET", etc, etc. In at least one case, one of the employers' management - in my view - avoided helping people get registered (said they would help support my application but then ignored all requests to review and verify). One of the other engineers who had been at this unnamed employer longer than I had been told me that they viewed it as of being no benefit to the company and actually was a disadvantage as it may mean you would try and ask for more pay once CEng registered or it makes it easier for you to leave and go elsewhere. These are some of the attitudes the IET faces. I think there have been improvements in recent times. For example, the employer I mentioned (after some changes in management) are now engaged with the IET and actively helping and encouraging engineers to get professionally registered - just a shame I had to leave before they managed to get to that point.


I have noticed that this reluctance (or apathy) towards getting professionally registered seems to be a bigger issue with electronics engineers (and other IET target members). The mechanical engineers I have come across are often members of IMechE and are professionally registered or very much actively wroking towards get registered as soon as possible. This is just an observation from the people I have encountered in my career so far. Is this what others have found also?


Not sure if it was in the remit of the report but often in these discussions about engineering and the future of engineering the issue of salary is often skimmed over. While there are other factors that drive a person to be interested in engineering as a career, pay and salary must come fairly high up in the list of most people's considerations for a career. After all, we all need to be able to live and then hopefully be able to afford some comforts. For all the headlines about the shortage of engineers in the UK I don't see the base salaries advertised rising particularly much. The supply and demand principle does not seem to be working here (or there is not actually the acute shortage that we are constantly being told about). I am pretty sure that young people research salaries as well as other information when comparing potential careers.

I have only just recently applied to be professionally registered myself even though I have been a memeber of the IET since my student days. Partially this late application is due to NOT having joined a structured training programme with a bluechip engineering comany straight out of university. But I feel I could possibly have applied or registration some years earlier. However, some of my former employers and to some extent colleagues have not always been supportive. Many were not members of the IET and were not registered. I sometimes got comments such as "why bother, you don't need it for the job", "you won't get paid more even if you get CEng registered", "you just end up having to pay more in fees to the IET", etc, etc. In at least one case, one of the employers' management - in my view - avoided helping people get registered (said they would help support my application but then ignored all requests to review and verify). One of the other engineers who had been at this unnamed employer longer than I had been told me that they viewed it as of being no benefit to the company and actually was a disadvantage as it may mean you would try and ask for more pay once CEng registered or it makes it easier for you to leave and go elsewhere. These are some of the attitudes the IET faces. I think there have been improvements in recent times. For example, the employer I mentioned (after some changes in management) are now engaged with the IET and actively helping and encouraging engineers to get professionally registered - just a shame I had to leave before they managed to get to that point.


I have noticed that this reluctance (or apathy) towards getting professionally registered seems to be a bigger issue with electronics engineers (and other IET target members). The mechanical engineers I have come across are often members of IMechE and are professionally registered or very much actively wroking towards get registered as soon as possible. This is just an observation from the people I have encountered in my career so far. Is this what others have found also?


Not sure if it was in the remit of the report but often in these discussions about engineering and the future of engineering the issue of salary is often skimmed over. While there are other factors that drive a person to be interested in engineering as a career, pay and salary must come fairly high up in the list of most people's considerations for a career. After all, we all need to be able to live and then hopefully be able to afford some comforts. For all the headlines about the shortage of engineers in the UK I don't see the base salaries advertised rising particularly much. The supply and demand principle does not seem to be working here (or there is not actually the acute shortage that we are constantly being told about). I am pretty sure that young people research salaries as well as other information when comparing potential careers.