Technically Challenging Careers With Engineering Courses
The word Engineer covers a very wide range of disciplines. If either automotive or aeronautical engineering appeal to you, you're probably the sort of person who enjoys a technical challenge.
Great Britain is renowned for its aeronautical engineering excellence, and its aerospace industry turns over many billions of pounds every year. With regard to the automotive sector Britain also plays a significant role here, with several hundred thousand people being involved in the industry.
Quality Training
There are a good number of universities in the UK offering BEng and MEng Degrees in Automotive Engineering and Aeronautical Engineering, several with international reputations. In addition, some offer post-grad courses for Engineering and Physical Sciences graduates. (Shorter courses are available from local technical institutions as well.) Degree courses can be studied with or without an industrial placement year. Engineering departments often have good links with industry for gaining work experience.
Part-time sandwich training is also an option for those who prefer to split their time between studying and working. The Armed Forces and certain private companies will sponsor students to qualify in both of these disciplines, in exchange for an agreed period of working time. With so many variables open to you, it's a good idea to really research everything that's on offer.
Automotive-Engineering
Automotive engineering has come a long way in the last hundred years. It takes in elements of many other engineering disciplines. There are many new technologies in the automotive arena, so a great deal to think about for the student who's just getting started.
From initial concepts to manufacture, automotive engineering can be divided into three main streams. Design engineers obviously come up with the vehicle's design, but they also have to check each component part.
The second discipline is covered by development engineers, who engineer all the features of the vehicle. These people often provide information to design engineers to regulate performance etc. Determining how to make the automobile is the job of the manufacturing engineers.
Degree courses in automotive engineering are very demanding, but extremely interesting. The various elements of your training will ensure you become proficient in core automotive subjects like engine design and vehicle dynamics. There are also very strict regulations to be learned and adhered to in safety engineering.
Whilst each individual system has to perform its job properly, it also has to complement the rest of the vehicle. And so training must include elements of development engineering. Sometimes opposing requirements have to be taken through a trade-off process, to ensure each system doesn't compromise another.
Development engineers ultimately have to be sure that everything on the completed vehicle not only meets the manufacturers spec, but is also compliant with the latest regulations.
Once the designers and developers are absolutely satisfied that everything is ready, the manufacturing engineers take over. Manufacturing engineers need to learn how to plan and engineer both the individual parts and the whole vehicle assembly. This complex discipline is sometimes regarded as the most esteemed area of automotive engineering.
Aero Engineering
Man's desire for flight has led to momentous developments in aircraft technology. If you qualify at degree level or above in Aeronautical Engineering, you will have proved yourself worthy to enter the fascinating business of aerospace. You might also be interested to know that the development and design of a Formula One racing car uses aerospace technology!
Flight vehicles are faced with huge stresses on take-off, flight and landing. Therefore aerospace engineering divides into very specialist areas, such as materials science and aerodynamics, which all come together to form the whole.
University students will be introduced to aircraft design techniques early on in their training, with modules on key analytical subjects. Analytical methods will be developed which allow aeronautical engineers to design and analyse aircraft. Modern computing methods can now simulate the behaviour of fluid, which reduces the need for empirical testing in wind tunnels. (However students will still carry out experiments using jet engines, large structural testing machines and wind tunnels).
Engineering students will get a lot of practical hands-on experience. Whichever programme you choose to follow, as a student engineer you will be involved with a major group design project at some time throughout your training. Automotive and Aeronautical Engineering training courses may also cover more broad-based subjects and transferable skills. Things like oral communication, leadership skills and teamwork might be on the list.
The UK aerospace industry attracts the very best graduates, and the work is both compelling and highly remunerated. For information about joining a professional body upon completion of your training, refer to the Engineering Council, or SARTOR (the Standards and Routes to Registration).
