Engineers who did not enjoy school - are they rare?

Andy Millar:

Another thought, I think the most important thing for engineers is to realise that adequate social and communication skills can be learnt to a level sufficient to operate successfully in a modern engineering team and project environment. These are not set in stone at 18 (or whatever age) for the rest of your life. Of course this does involve the engineer in question recognising that they have a problem in the first place - most of us will have come across the type of engineer who believes that they are brilliant at communication and teamwork (and, indeed, everything else) and cannot understand why no-one else wants to work with them - and often why they keep getting made redundant. (Personally I started from a pretty low level, and am very much still learning.)

How exactly can, or should, people learn social and communication skills - to a level sufficient to operate successfully in a modern engineering team and project environment?

Andy Millar:

P.S. If you can teach engineers presentation and communication skills, and how to pass these on - which you definitely can - then it will also be possible to teach these to teachers. It's a case of seeing it as a problem and wanting to change it.

What do you think of kids who produce videos and run their own YouTube channels?


A point that I raised more than once whilst I was at school was why do schools make kids produce so much written work but video production is not part of the curriculum despite it being a multibillion pound industry? My comments were met with bewilderment by the teachers who struggled to think beyond the confines of pen pushing or realise the power and potential of video productions presumably because it didn't fit into the curriculum at the time.


Would it be more beneficial for kids to spend more time making videos on their smartphones then uploading them to YouTube than swotting over their homework? 

Andy Millar:

Another thought, I think the most important thing for engineers is to realise that adequate social and communication skills can be learnt to a level sufficient to operate successfully in a modern engineering team and project environment. These are not set in stone at 18 (or whatever age) for the rest of your life. Of course this does involve the engineer in question recognising that they have a problem in the first place - most of us will have come across the type of engineer who believes that they are brilliant at communication and teamwork (and, indeed, everything else) and cannot understand why no-one else wants to work with them - and often why they keep getting made redundant. (Personally I started from a pretty low level, and am very much still learning.)

How exactly can, or should, people learn social and communication skills - to a level sufficient to operate successfully in a modern engineering team and project environment?

Andy Millar:

P.S. If you can teach engineers presentation and communication skills, and how to pass these on - which you definitely can - then it will also be possible to teach these to teachers. It's a case of seeing it as a problem and wanting to change it.

What do you think of kids who produce videos and run their own YouTube channels?


A point that I raised more than once whilst I was at school was why do schools make kids produce so much written work but video production is not part of the curriculum despite it being a multibillion pound industry? My comments were met with bewilderment by the teachers who struggled to think beyond the confines of pen pushing or realise the power and potential of video productions presumably because it didn't fit into the curriculum at the time.


Would it be more beneficial for kids to spend more time making videos on their smartphones then uploading them to YouTube than swotting over their homework?