Rules and Guidelines
Want to participate in the discussions? Please read our Community Rules and Guidelines. Need some help? Visit Support and Answers.

  • State Not Answered
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 38 replies
  • Subscribers 14 subscribers
  • Views 3006 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
You may also be interested in
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Where is the IET going?

RayC
The IET on Twitter is mostly about women in engineering and it appears we also have or have had an Executive member who represents the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE-UK). Since when did we get away and direct our selves at subsections of the organization? There is no minorities that I am aware of in the IET at least not because of bias in any way shape of form. The same goes for women in engineering, no one is biased against them. Low numbers are because they dont want to be in engineering..

Where is the IET heading? It does not seem to be going in a place most of the member wold probably want or is it?
Parents
  • 0
    John


    I empathise with your perspective, but also recognise in myself the quote “To understand the man you have to know what was happening in the world when he was twenty.” (attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte). I built carts from junk and ordered components from Maplin by mail order before it had branches.  My “pet gripe” is the loss of good apprenticeship opportunities, which were available throughout the country when most of the major industries were nationalised.  This isn’t a political point about privatisation, simply an observation on great change over the last half century.  When as an employer’s representative, I criticised schools for steering bright young people away from apprenticeships , the reasonable response was; where are these apprenticeships and how many are there? In my case the answer was “up to 3 in Glasgow and 2 in Edinburgh”.  We rather assumed that Higher Education would solve the problem, without having a coherent plan, so results have been “patchy”. 


    I don’t have any figures to hand, but my understanding is that of the circa 99% of awards, prizes and scholarships given by the IET which don’t involve any gender element, for the first time ever this year, those student bursaries awarded on the basis of A level results went to around 50% females.  I know of one or two examples in employment where a man has felt unfairly “passed over” for a “token” female candidate and have lost count of the number of occasions where women have hit a glass ceiling, or suffered some disadvantage.  


    I agree that if we were taking from one gender to give to another, that could be morally questionable because we are creating a win-lose scenario. To squabble endlessly about it just creates a lose-lose scenario. If we respect equally all Engineers and Technicians who meet the standards we expect, then that creates a win-win scenario where everyone can potentially gain. How many among us have been perennially obsessed with snobbery and one-upmanship before any more than a handful of women got involved?


    As I said in the previous post, not getting value is a perfectly valid reason to leave the IET. As is just “falling out of love” with the messaging and direction of travel. I tried to engage with and understand some of those former IIE members who have left feeling “insulted” over IEng treatment.  Some ventilated their grievance in these forums first. You have taken the trouble to voice your reasons. Both situations offer a learning opportunity for the IET.  However “you can’t please all of the people all of the time” .       

Reply
  • 0
    John


    I empathise with your perspective, but also recognise in myself the quote “To understand the man you have to know what was happening in the world when he was twenty.” (attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte). I built carts from junk and ordered components from Maplin by mail order before it had branches.  My “pet gripe” is the loss of good apprenticeship opportunities, which were available throughout the country when most of the major industries were nationalised.  This isn’t a political point about privatisation, simply an observation on great change over the last half century.  When as an employer’s representative, I criticised schools for steering bright young people away from apprenticeships , the reasonable response was; where are these apprenticeships and how many are there? In my case the answer was “up to 3 in Glasgow and 2 in Edinburgh”.  We rather assumed that Higher Education would solve the problem, without having a coherent plan, so results have been “patchy”. 


    I don’t have any figures to hand, but my understanding is that of the circa 99% of awards, prizes and scholarships given by the IET which don’t involve any gender element, for the first time ever this year, those student bursaries awarded on the basis of A level results went to around 50% females.  I know of one or two examples in employment where a man has felt unfairly “passed over” for a “token” female candidate and have lost count of the number of occasions where women have hit a glass ceiling, or suffered some disadvantage.  


    I agree that if we were taking from one gender to give to another, that could be morally questionable because we are creating a win-lose scenario. To squabble endlessly about it just creates a lose-lose scenario. If we respect equally all Engineers and Technicians who meet the standards we expect, then that creates a win-win scenario where everyone can potentially gain. How many among us have been perennially obsessed with snobbery and one-upmanship before any more than a handful of women got involved?


    As I said in the previous post, not getting value is a perfectly valid reason to leave the IET. As is just “falling out of love” with the messaging and direction of travel. I tried to engage with and understand some of those former IIE members who have left feeling “insulted” over IEng treatment.  Some ventilated their grievance in these forums first. You have taken the trouble to voice your reasons. Both situations offer a learning opportunity for the IET.  However “you can’t please all of the people all of the time” .       

Children
No Data

Community Rules & Guidelines