And again this is an interesting comparison with other professions where there is no other route to the "brilliant A levels / brilliant degree"  pathway - to contradict myself I do actually like the fact that we have the multiple routes into engineering. As ever with many of these discussions, this would be a fascinating research topic for someone to see which approach actually works "best" - having first worked out what "best" means anyway. 


We're both old enough to remember the "is a Polytechnic degree really equivalent to a University degree" debate, which was never really resolved - except by employers who were quite happy to recruit on a "horses for courses" basis!


The people I feel sorry for in all this are the poor students - from the ages of 14-24 - who are given a whole range of contradictory advice as to the "right" qualifications for engineering. Not helped by academic institutions trying to sell courses, HR departments trying to recruit through "tick lists", and (to a lesser extent) employers who want to only recruit people who came up the same path that they did. It would be a really good issue for the PEIs to take a lead on because it needs independent oversight. BUT (my usual concern) they have to be sure they are accurately advising on pathways for the whole engineering industry, not just the small section that is "PEI friendly". And be prepared to swallow their pride and accept that professional registration is not an end in itself, it's more important to advise on pathways to a good career. (Whatever "good" means to the individual.)


Thanks,


Andy

And again this is an interesting comparison with other professions where there is no other route to the "brilliant A levels / brilliant degree"  pathway - to contradict myself I do actually like the fact that we have the multiple routes into engineering. As ever with many of these discussions, this would be a fascinating research topic for someone to see which approach actually works "best" - having first worked out what "best" means anyway. 


We're both old enough to remember the "is a Polytechnic degree really equivalent to a University degree" debate, which was never really resolved - except by employers who were quite happy to recruit on a "horses for courses" basis!


The people I feel sorry for in all this are the poor students - from the ages of 14-24 - who are given a whole range of contradictory advice as to the "right" qualifications for engineering. Not helped by academic institutions trying to sell courses, HR departments trying to recruit through "tick lists", and (to a lesser extent) employers who want to only recruit people who came up the same path that they did. It would be a really good issue for the PEIs to take a lead on because it needs independent oversight. BUT (my usual concern) they have to be sure they are accurately advising on pathways for the whole engineering industry, not just the small section that is "PEI friendly". And be prepared to swallow their pride and accept that professional registration is not an end in itself, it's more important to advise on pathways to a good career. (Whatever "good" means to the individual.)


Thanks,


Andy