If it's any basis I went to Oxford University.

I agree about a lack of correlation between qualifications & ability.

I have met an engineering phd when I played at stressing aircraft interiors. The phd was so poor at practical engineering that in the end the only thing he was permitted to do was create artist's impressions of a new interior. He had a 2Cv (the only thing in his favour) but noticed a crack in a decorative panel between the front wing and the cabin bulkhead. As a result, he took the car to a garage to be looked at. Within 5 minutes the mechanic had grounded the car. The chassis had snapped just forward of the cabin, with the bottom flange of the chassis only being intact and acting as a hinge. The in-fill panel (held on with 2 M5 screws) was the only thing stopping the front of the car pivoting around the front wheels and digging in…

The best natural engineer I have met is a machinist at work. He has 5 O levels, but can feel intuitively how to make things right. OK, his abilities have been helped by the apprenticeship he took, but someone without the 'feel' would never be able to do what he can.

Unfortunately my 'abilities' put me closer to the phd than the natural machinist…

Regards,

Richard

I loved that cartoon of the spotty academic PHD engineer with his DEEPLOMA sticking out of his top pocket. The caption read – "Six munce ago I couldn't spell Engonier, Now I are one"

Rang true for some of the 'Engineers' I have met.

BobH

Some people will make a decent job of anything they do, others simply through the motions. I once asked an apprentice to sweep the floor, he waved the broom about for some time but appeared to be totally oblivious of what the business end of the broom was doing, in this case, it wasn't much. The boss was a bit like that too!

> 22 Tonnes of bricks, actually

Dare I ask what you read…?

Neil

What you assert is fairly common knowledge in the engineering world. A certain type of individual who is akin to a lighthouse in a desert.

Extremely bright, but f*** all use to anyone.

I studied Geography at University and have been manufacturing shotgun ammunition for the last 22 years!

Love machinery and how it works, beats office work. Just that I have to fix the machinery that so call engineers have designed!!

Yeah, I'd agree with O.P.

My father works at a clay quarry and model engineering is his hobby. He has made some beautiful engines. Then, having said that, with ref to qualifications, he decided to go to open university to read a maths degree because he found his methods of machine set up used maths…

I grew up around old oil engines and steam models and with my feet planted at the foot of the lathe from an early age, began building and honing my 'engineering ability'. I chose to do a degree in engineering after my A levels, which was intended to help me secure a good engineering position – However, being a particularly firey individual I found taking orders from half wits in jobs I'd secured hard to do, so set up my own business in a field that I have interest and experience in. (A vehicle workshop)

The thing I always think about engineering is that 'Engineering' means different things to different people.

For instance, the workshops I went to after uni were all CAD/CAM orientated. Generally you simply pressed go on a machine or put a fresh bit of stock in the chuck, or on the table. If you had no actual practical ability, you would find it hard to come home from work and set about making something (My colleagues always admired engines I took in to show them but couldn't conceive how it could possibly be done with manual machines and files without CAD. But they would still consider themselves 'skilled engineers' Whereas I considered the quiet and usually forgotten chaps that were designing the parts, working out tolerances, UTS' centrifugal forces, failure probability with F.O.S and loading etc to give the CAD people something to draw the true talents.

I myself found university slightly bizarre as there was very little practical (mainly due to health and safety) and all you were required to do was prove you could make something. In our case a silly little 3 legged bearing puller, which ironically I never made because I took in a couple of my engines and they decided it was a waste of resources. Instead I turned out some rear wheel rims for a traction engine I was finishing for a friend.

Now I really do love maths, and physics and all things mathematically derived, but I do remember a moment at about 3am one morning when I was working on a piece of coursework due in the same day. (also knowing as last minute stupidity) I was writing out some polynomial division as part of a proof that 22/7 is greater than pi and I remember thinking to myself, I know what pi equals, why I am proving what pi DOESN'T equal when I could be making something constructive!!

To me, broadly, engineering is the series of solutions (machining / design calculations etc) that turn an idea into a practical item. But then I build models and I consider that engineering so who knows!!

I do largely agree though that daytime job versus hobby are often worlds apart. I once knew a concrete worker who would go home a build clocks…how such dumpy fingers could even pick up half the components of it was beyond me!

Anyway, at present I and talking on the model engineering site when I really should be working!

Kind regards, Pete.

I have known several engineering graduates fresh from the uni. going into CNC machine design who could do anything with a CAD/CAM program but had very poor knowledge of the tools used and toolsetting ;some of them had to get me to explain the use and performance of many commonly used tools for machines when asked to actually produce a machine set up for a specified component. I also knew a skilled general machinist who went on to uni. after an apprenticeship: he was brilliant as a CNC machine tool designer because he had lots of manual machine experience before learning CAD/CAM theory and the maths to use it .Theory and ability can be very far apart but a high paper qualification does demonstrate the intelligence to learn. One learns more every day throughout an engineering career. Then takes up modelmaking and learns lots of short cuts. Colin

I used to work with a guy who, one afternoon got our large heavy old fashioned sack barrow out of the van, stood it down whilst he closed and locked the van, then picked it up and struggled to carry it across the car park and into the workshop! !.

My job takes me to a different university every day of the week and when I'm driving around the campus looking for some where to park etc I see the "students" and think is this what the future holds for the country, and those I have to train on equipment always give me the view the lights are on but nobody's at home.

Martin P