My experiences over the years are that the career engineering communities and the maker / mender movement communities are quite distant from each other. Most maker / mender people I have encountered are not career engineers – and many do not hold an engineering degree or similar high level qualification – whilst at the same time most career engineers have come up through the avenues academia and have never been significant hobbyists.


I was talking to a university professor who informed me that most engineering hobbyists usually have very little advantage over non-hobbyists in electronic engineering degree courses. It’s something to do with the style of learning and assessment required for success in exams and assessments. He even admitted that many engineering hobbyists would be better off taking a more vocational course rather than an engineering degree. A high proportion of the 1st class degrees go to overseas students who are not hobbyists and more often than not lack practical ability. The same phenomenon exists in computer science courses and some universities prefer that students start with a 'clean mind' rather than one shaped by hobbyist programming experiences. The old Computing A Level had many shortcomings but universities don't appear to hold the new Computer Science A Level in high regard or prefer that applicants for technical computing type courses have studied it. Computer Science is not yet a facilitating subject.


SME often prefer people from the maker / mender movement than large companies do because they tend to have practical skills and creativity which are commonly lacking in those coming up through academia. It is unknown how many engineers without degrees are employed in Britain because rarely are any of them members of the IET. The question I ask is should there be a large disparity between the career engineering and the maker / mender movements?

My experiences over the years are that the career engineering communities and the maker / mender movement communities are quite distant from each other. Most maker / mender people I have encountered are not career engineers – and many do not hold an engineering degree or similar high level qualification – whilst at the same time most career engineers have come up through the avenues academia and have never been significant hobbyists.


I was talking to a university professor who informed me that most engineering hobbyists usually have very little advantage over non-hobbyists in electronic engineering degree courses. It’s something to do with the style of learning and assessment required for success in exams and assessments. He even admitted that many engineering hobbyists would be better off taking a more vocational course rather than an engineering degree. A high proportion of the 1st class degrees go to overseas students who are not hobbyists and more often than not lack practical ability. The same phenomenon exists in computer science courses and some universities prefer that students start with a 'clean mind' rather than one shaped by hobbyist programming experiences. The old Computing A Level had many shortcomings but universities don't appear to hold the new Computer Science A Level in high regard or prefer that applicants for technical computing type courses have studied it. Computer Science is not yet a facilitating subject.


SME often prefer people from the maker / mender movement than large companies do because they tend to have practical skills and creativity which are commonly lacking in those coming up through academia. It is unknown how many engineers without degrees are employed in Britain because rarely are any of them members of the IET. The question I ask is should there be a large disparity between the career engineering and the maker / mender movements?