Hands-on apprenticeship at Dyson with academics of the University of Warwick. I think this is a highly successful combination.


The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology gives students hands-on experience as part of their Global Engineering team while studying for their degree from Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick. Students earn a competitive salary – starting on a salary of £18,000 per annum, which increases each year. Students are also eligible for the staff bonus scheme and staff discount. and because Dyson covers all tuition fees, they could graduate debt-free.​ 

The students have to pay for their accommodations. Basically one is classed as a full-time employee at Dyson and a full-time student. 


A friend of mine graduated in the USA from a somewhat similar program at the San Jose State University and IBM. The difference was job title initially was an intern Engineer and upon graduation staff Engineer.

This type of apprenticeship working with engineers on real projects and the academics of a University produced well-rounded job-ready experienced engineers.


The Dyson Institute is trying to get degree-awarding approvals and if approved is planning to offer its own awarded degree after September 2021.

If not approved the degree will continue to be awarded by Warwick.
The majority of Warwick engineering degrees are accredited by licensed professional engineering institutions, such as the IET, IMechE, and JBM and provide the academic component (in part or fully) needed for Incorporated/Chartered Engineer status.  I assume this degree is accredited for the registration as an engineer.

I'm a bit more ambivalent about this. Yes, anything that offers combined industrial experience and formal education is a good thing. However Dyson do very much have a "Dyson way" of doing things, my personal bugbear is their incredible level of secrecy which I don't think is healthy for an engineering environment - but of course James Dyson would rightly claim that he has been very successful on the back of it. And I guess it's not that different to similar programmes effectively run by all branches of the military, which again will focus on a very specific cultural approach to engineering.


So personally I'm much more in favour of the "institute" side of training and education being outside any particular employer; being trained in the "Dyson way", the "Microsoft way", the "IBM way", the "3M way" or, as a large proportion of my generation were, the "Marconi way" has arguably tended not to be helpful in the long term for either the organisation or the individual - it stops new ideas and attitudes coming in.


BUT better that than nothing!


I'll admit my own biases in this (which are pretty obvious): emotionally I don't like organisations that appear to try to engineer corporate pride in their employees (or customers), I believe that if you want your employees to be proud of working for you, you have to earn that - and keep earning it. Which, to be fair, Dyson would say they are by investing in employee training. Well fine, as long as it is fully transferable to other organisations. (Incidentally I also think the reverse is true, if you want your employer to be proud of having you, you have to earn that too!)


Cheers,


Andy