Back in 1979 the average salary for Chartered Electrical Engineers working in the Private Sector in Telecomms R&D and associated areas - in the optimum age ranges of 30 to 45 was on a par with the salary of Members of Parliament - the latest IET salary survey 2019 shows how far behind the profession has fallen - now earning less than a TubeTrain Driver! Why has this been allowed to happen and WHAT HAS THE IET DONE TO ADDRESS THIS DEPLORABLE STATE OF AFFAIRS? Our young people are not going to be attracted to the profession when the rewards are so poor! James Dyson and many F1 racing teams etc still maintain their thriving R&D Centres in the UK - why ? Because UK Engineers are cheaper to employ than any where else in Europe!
I think that you are quite right. The prevailing policy since the 1980s has been to let the 'city' sell off many of our successful companies to enable those in the financial sector to enrich themselves at the expense of the country, in my view. The fate of such comapnies such as GEC, Thorn, Lucas, BICC, Vickers, ARM, GKN are typical of this, I think.
Tom Brown in his book "Tragedy & Challenge: An Inside View of UK Engineering’s Decline and the Challenge of the Brexit Economy" has published an insiders view and states for example ... "compared to the other developed economies considered the decline in UK manufacturing in terms of employment and contribution to GDP has been significantly the most severe, a very regrettable and in my view quite unnecessary situation ..........
..... despite its precipitate decline UK manufacturing is still extremely important – for example 2.6 million employees (massively more than the City), half of all UK exports (increasingly critical for our balance of payments), and 72% of business R&D........
..... In sharp contrast to the UK, during my working life German manufacturing has fared much better......"
As for what should be done about it, it is of course up to us. There is certainly no easy solution.
I think that you are quite right. The prevailing policy since the 1980s has been to let the 'city' sell off many of our successful companies to enable those in the financial sector to enrich themselves at the expense of the country, in my view. The fate of such comapnies such as GEC, Thorn, Lucas, BICC, Vickers, ARM, GKN are typical of this, I think.
Tom Brown in his book "Tragedy & Challenge: An Inside View of UK Engineering’s Decline and the Challenge of the Brexit Economy" has published an insiders view and states for example ... "compared to the other developed economies considered the decline in UK manufacturing in terms of employment and contribution to GDP has been significantly the most severe, a very regrettable and in my view quite unnecessary situation ..........
..... despite its precipitate decline UK manufacturing is still extremely important – for example 2.6 million employees (massively more than the City), half of all UK exports (increasingly critical for our balance of payments), and 72% of business R&D........
..... In sharp contrast to the UK, during my working life German manufacturing has fared much better......"
As for what should be done about it, it is of course up to us. There is certainly no easy solution.
