Do BT engineers work today?

Ask to see his degree. When he says he doesn't have one ask why he calls himself an engineer.

Why?, you don't need a degree to be an engineer. My Uncle is an engineer, he doesn't have a degree.


My housemate did that a couple of years ago (he's a mechanical engineer grad) to a British Gas engineer. He came round to fix our boiler, and my mate asked his what his degree was, and gave him grief of using the title 'Engineer'. Was actually really rude.

Is your mate actually an Engineer, having a degree doesn't make you one.

He sounds like a prat frankly.
 
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I doubt they will show aswell, bank holiday or not.

Well the engineer came and fixed the fault. Just hope I don't get charged as they promised I wouldn't when dealing with the network people.

The line even syncronises a tiny bit faster now too. Happy New Year to BT and all those that replied today!



Your mate doesnt sound very intelligent for someone with a degree either. Insulting someone who is `fixing` your gas boiler.

"Yeah just give it 5 minutes and then light it up mate..."

Thread reading skills 10/10

Why?, you don't need a degree to be an engineer. My Uncle is an engineer, he doesn't have a degree.

I think people are trying to make out that you can only call yourself an engineer if you do a degree and are a distant relative of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. I agree to an extent, most people are technicians, not engineers but don't give people a hard time about it.
 
I think people are trying to make out that you can only call yourself an engineer if you do a degree and are a distant relative of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. I agree to an extent, most people are technicians, not engineers but don't give people a hard time about it.

I agree that some jobs are not engineers per se. However you can be a bone-fide Engineer without a degree, my Uncle is a Structural Design Engineer for BAe. He has no degree, he served an apprenticeship.

Being an Engineer makes you one, doing a degree doesn't.
 
I agree to a point. However you can be a bone-fide Engineer without a degree, my Uncle is a Structural Design Engineer for BAe. He has no degree, he served an apprenticeship.

Being an Engineer makes you one, doing a degree doesn't.

That poster's flatmate is going to learn that while stacking shelves with his Engineering Degree :D
 
In my opinion and the opinion of most of the professional engineering community a degree is a pre-requisite to calling yourself an engineer. I would however also say that significant experience in a field combined with a level of further training / education gained at work can make you an engineer without a degree, but this is the exception rather than the norm.

An engineering degree usually involves a significant number of business classes, allowing professional engineers to use the technical principles of their field in combination with economic knowledge and understanding to make the best decisions when solving problems. Technicians (eg the man fixing the BT phone line) generally don't work at a level where economic or wider business understanding is required.
 
You don't need a degree to become a chartered engineer, you can gain that by experience alone. Mind you how do you start? :confused:

Andi.

PS From the Engineering Council web site.

Eligibility
The CEng professional qualification is open to anyone who can demonstrate the required professional competences and commitment. These are set out in our professional standard, UK-SPEC, and are developed through education and working experience.

The process will be more straightforward if you have particular academic qualifications, which will also allow you to obtain interim registration. For CEng these are:

an accredited Bachelors degree with honours in engineering or technology, plus either an appropriate Masters degree accredited by a professional engineering institution, or appropriate further learning to Masters level
or an accredited integrated MEng degree
However, you can still become a Chartered Engineer if you do not have these academic qualifications. Further information about the assessment process can be found in UK-SPEC.
 
The issue is with employers doling out inflated sounding job titles.

I'm called a Software Engineer. If someone had a pop at me about it, I'd probably agree with them :p
 
You don't need a degree to become a chartered engineer, you can gain that by experience alone. Mind you how do you start? :confused:

Andi.

PS From the Engineering Council web site.

Eligibility
The CEng professional qualification is open to anyone who can demonstrate the required professional competences and commitment. These are set out in our professional standard, UK-SPEC, and are developed through education and working experience.

The process will be more straightforward if you have particular academic qualifications, which will also allow you to obtain interim registration. For CEng these are:

an accredited Bachelors degree with honours in engineering or technology, plus either an appropriate Masters degree accredited by a professional engineering institution, or appropriate further learning to Masters level
or an accredited integrated MEng degree
However, you can still become a Chartered Engineer if you do not have these academic qualifications. Further information about the assessment process can be found in UK-SPEC.



My Uncle is a member and he has no degree, he served an apprenticeship. I expect a lot of older engineers are the same.
 
I served my apprenticeship, and after a few years on the shop floor as a fitter, my company have let me go back to college, and i'm now studying for a HNC in Mech eng. I hope to convert this into a HND.
From how it sounds, i'm doomed to the ocuk label of technician :D
But seriously, this gets bought up over and over and over in various threads. Someone aught to make a engineering bashing thread or something where everyone can argue until the sun comes up about who is, or who isnt an engineer
 
Why?, you don't need a degree to be an engineer. My Uncle is an engineer, he doesn't have a degree.




Is your mate actually an Engineer, having a degree doesn't make you one.

He sounds like a prat frankly.

He is a bit of an arse, but yeah he is an engineer, currently working for Foster Wheeler.
 
This 'engineer' business brings up some fond memories. When I was working for Sky as an installation 'engineer' during my uni years, (2 days training before I went on my own) everyone seemed very proud of the 'engineer' title they had. I was too embarrassed to ring up clients with that tag and only referred to myself as an installer. Which is what we were. My boss, the 'Installation and Engineering Department Supervisor' (he done 5 years in prison for armed robbery and another 10 months for dealing drugs. That is the type of person that worked there) kept on moaning at me for not referring to myself as an engineer. I was glad to see the back of that place.

And another tidbit. Think I did post it here. My local hairdresser had a job application plastered over their dirty shop window for a 'Senior Colour Technical Engineer'. I am literally not making this up. You need to be an engineer now to slap hair-dye on.

Oh this country and their irrational love of irrationally idiotic titles.
 
To those on about being a chartered engineer without qualifications....
It can be done, but you must be doing an engineering job to gain the experience.
A typical route of this is working your way up from the shop-floor of a factory over a number of years.

Fixing boilers is a technician with a fancy job title, not an engineering role and as such will NEVER be counted towards being a chartered engineer!

The same goes for:
Bin Men
IT Technicians
Man-who-comes-round-to-check-if-the-tv-is-faulty (like Comet's 'engineer' who poked the power psu on my tv with a biro to make it spark)
Sky dish setter-uppers
Broadband modem setter-uppers
People who fix cars.
The man who fixes the photocopier.
The man who fixes......pretty much anything, is not an engineer!

Engineers are clever individuals who are responsible for most of the things we have in life, the job roles mentioned above are not doing this.
 
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