New Emphasis in Training Engineers
Page 37
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
rOINCIDENT with the publication of
a new training handbook, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers last week held a Press conference to explain how its ideas about the education and training of engineers had altered in the years since the first handbook was published in 1960.
The shift in emphasis is reflected in the new handbook, " Professional Training in Mechanical Engineering Practice for Chartered Engineers "; it is essentially a move away from the idea of the engineer as a skilled manual craftsman to the concept of a more broadly based career in which academic training and practical experience are balanced by an understanding of management, costing and general works control, as well as some knowledge of techniques and materials in other than the purely mechanical field.
• The importance of design office experience and the gaining of a general engineering competence were streed at last week's conference, and industry was urged to give more responsibility to trainees and to test their mettle by giving them actual projects to work on. It was important. too, that engineers should have a flexible outlook and not be too rigidly specialized.
• It was pointed out that the Industrial Training Act provided for an extra grant. or rebate, for firms who made' available places for engineering trainees requiring to undertake the practical section of a sandwich course in engineering.
Prepared by a special panel of the I Mech. the new handbook costs 10s. and is obtainable from the Institution at l Birdcage Walk, London, SWL. Introducing it last week, the president, Mr. H. Norman G. Allen, commented that initial demand for the hook showed how great was the upsurge of interest in engineering training in the United Kingdom today.