Soldato
- Joined
- 5 Aug 2006
- Posts
- 11,428
- Location
- Derbyshire
this thread is to appreciate engineers and what we do. It was inspired by a facebook group i joined.
It states that we engineers are not recognised as we should be.
It proves a good read.
The following is quoted from the group:
A chap named Jon Jennings is petitioning the government to have the title of "Engineer" protected so that it cannot be used by unqualified individuals. In other countries Engineers are on par with Doctors and Lawyers, sadly this is not so in the UK. Plumbers and electricians use the title to drum up business and make employees sound more proficient. I know this is a really long statement, but it is important, if you would like to join the petition but are lazy and don't want to read, then please just scroll down and click the link below.
You may have heard the term "Boiler Engineer", when what is really meant is "Boiler Technician" And that means that the chap who fixes your boiler knows what bits and bobs to change when it breaks, not how to design it from scratch so that it is practical, economical and efficient in terms of energy, materials, production etc (and believe it or not that's quite difficult and not comparable with refitting a boiler). I would like to point out however that THIS IS IN NO WAY MEANT AS A SLUR ON TRADESMEN, these jobs are extremely important, skillful and often undervalued, but they are not Engineers. They are Technicians and Tradesmen, the purpose of which is to maintain already implemented services.
This misapplication of the title "Engineer" gives the public a poor understanding of the jobs undertaken by the actual Engineering Sector, which is in decline in the UK. The sector recieves little media attention and is not as easily understood by people as say the medical professions or the legal professions - look at programs like Boston Legal, Law & Order, ER, House, Grey's Anatomy etc and you'll see what I mean. Obviously I'm not saying we should necessarily have TV dramas about engineers but people do not have any particular view of what engineering really entails. By protecting the title it is hoped that the sector will become more easily defined and will hopefully become viewed in a similar light to medicine & law and other fields. Children need to be aware of the role of the engineering sector as well, the levels of people taking up Engineering Courses at Uni are falling in the UK and this isn't a good plan.
WITHOUT ENGINEERS WE WOULD HAVE NO INFRASTRUCTURE - NO WATER SUPPLY, NO TRANSPORT NETWORK, NO SANITATION, NO LAPTOPS, NO TVS, NO POWER STATIONS, NO FUEL, NO SHAMPOO (seriously), NO LARGE BUILDINGS, NO CARS. Engineering is one of the oldest and most important areas of study in civilization. If you look around you in a town today, there is virtually nothing in view save the sky that hasn't been designed and constructed by Engineers. Everything you take for granted is designed and implemented by Engineers to cater for the needs and safety of you and everyone around you. For example, without Engineers, Doctors and Surgeons would not have all of the technological applications they rely so heavily upon, they would not have large hospital complexes to facilitate large numbers of people, they would not have the ambulances they needed for emergencies and they certainly wouldn't have things along the lines of life support machines. You'd be screwed. Engineers even design the prosthetic limbs often used by amputees, the first bionic eyes have just been developed and tested, 6 formerly blind people can now see because of this particular area of engineering in the medical field. You wouldn't believe how much influence engineers have on life in general.
Please sign the petition by clicking on the link below, as it's about time that Engineering was recognised for what it is in the UK and the seriously important role that it plays, because the people that are going to solve the problems of replacing fossil fuels, developing clean energy and providing the infrastructure this country needs in the future are not plumbers or electricians.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Engineer-Status/
It states that we engineers are not recognised as we should be.
It proves a good read.
The following is quoted from the group:
A chap named Jon Jennings is petitioning the government to have the title of "Engineer" protected so that it cannot be used by unqualified individuals. In other countries Engineers are on par with Doctors and Lawyers, sadly this is not so in the UK. Plumbers and electricians use the title to drum up business and make employees sound more proficient. I know this is a really long statement, but it is important, if you would like to join the petition but are lazy and don't want to read, then please just scroll down and click the link below.
You may have heard the term "Boiler Engineer", when what is really meant is "Boiler Technician" And that means that the chap who fixes your boiler knows what bits and bobs to change when it breaks, not how to design it from scratch so that it is practical, economical and efficient in terms of energy, materials, production etc (and believe it or not that's quite difficult and not comparable with refitting a boiler). I would like to point out however that THIS IS IN NO WAY MEANT AS A SLUR ON TRADESMEN, these jobs are extremely important, skillful and often undervalued, but they are not Engineers. They are Technicians and Tradesmen, the purpose of which is to maintain already implemented services.
This misapplication of the title "Engineer" gives the public a poor understanding of the jobs undertaken by the actual Engineering Sector, which is in decline in the UK. The sector recieves little media attention and is not as easily understood by people as say the medical professions or the legal professions - look at programs like Boston Legal, Law & Order, ER, House, Grey's Anatomy etc and you'll see what I mean. Obviously I'm not saying we should necessarily have TV dramas about engineers but people do not have any particular view of what engineering really entails. By protecting the title it is hoped that the sector will become more easily defined and will hopefully become viewed in a similar light to medicine & law and other fields. Children need to be aware of the role of the engineering sector as well, the levels of people taking up Engineering Courses at Uni are falling in the UK and this isn't a good plan.
WITHOUT ENGINEERS WE WOULD HAVE NO INFRASTRUCTURE - NO WATER SUPPLY, NO TRANSPORT NETWORK, NO SANITATION, NO LAPTOPS, NO TVS, NO POWER STATIONS, NO FUEL, NO SHAMPOO (seriously), NO LARGE BUILDINGS, NO CARS. Engineering is one of the oldest and most important areas of study in civilization. If you look around you in a town today, there is virtually nothing in view save the sky that hasn't been designed and constructed by Engineers. Everything you take for granted is designed and implemented by Engineers to cater for the needs and safety of you and everyone around you. For example, without Engineers, Doctors and Surgeons would not have all of the technological applications they rely so heavily upon, they would not have large hospital complexes to facilitate large numbers of people, they would not have the ambulances they needed for emergencies and they certainly wouldn't have things along the lines of life support machines. You'd be screwed. Engineers even design the prosthetic limbs often used by amputees, the first bionic eyes have just been developed and tested, 6 formerly blind people can now see because of this particular area of engineering in the medical field. You wouldn't believe how much influence engineers have on life in general.
Please sign the petition by clicking on the link below, as it's about time that Engineering was recognised for what it is in the UK and the seriously important role that it plays, because the people that are going to solve the problems of replacing fossil fuels, developing clean energy and providing the infrastructure this country needs in the future are not plumbers or electricians.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Engineer-Status/
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