Harry Stottle
Screwfix Select
btiw2, here are my thoughts; I'm an engineer (a proper engineer, not a repair man "engineer") You are absolutely right about engineering training, but additionally there's the image and status difference that discourages young people to embark on an engineering career. In Germany an engineer enjoys the same status in society as lawyers, medical doctors, accountants etc. and it's an offence to call yourself an engineer if you're not accredited. It's quite different here, for years the three great engineering institutions Civil, Mechanical and Electrical have been trying to encourage young people with little or no help from governmentsIt's usually best to ignore the "I'm not a racist, but..." posts. They're not bigoted, swivel-eyed loons, but...
Not that I'm having a go at bigoted, swivel-eyed loons - some of my best friends are bigoted, swivel-eyed loons.
You get the idea.
It's mad isn't it? It's like we're suffering from hyperactive attention deficit but-what-about-the-immigrants disorder.
Now my obligatory nonsense is out the way, let's look at the question.
Why is our manufacturing base related to our membership of the EU?
The Germans and the Chinese both manage to do very well in manufacturing - one within the EU and one without. Admittedly I'd rather be a German worker, than a Chinese one - but that's not my point.
Firstly, we need to ask whether keeping what's left of our manufacturing is a good thing. i.e. Is it intrinsically good? If employees could add more value outside of manufacturing, would that be somehow worse?
Or we could accept that it is good - it just is.
How will our leaving the EU affect our manufacturing base? It seems to me that our retreat from manufacturing predates Brexit.
We could look at why we lost our manufacturing base within the EU and Germany has thrived.
Possibly the lifelong emphasis on engineering training in Germany has something to do with it.
Possibly there something in the British culture that promotes advertising, media and financial occupations as somehow more worthy than engineering and manufacturing.
When did this slide start? Did Mrs. Thatcher's destruction of the unions have anything to do with it?
I don't know. I'd be interested to know your thoughts.
made up of mainly lawyers, at the same time anyone handy with a spanner can call himself an engineer.
It is with regret that we gave away our world leading nuclear industry, there was no nation to touch us for our skill in designing and building nuclear power stations, yet we let it slip away whilst paying homage to the daft anti nuclear lobby. Abandoning Dounreay under pressure from the anti-nuclear brigade was a big mistake.
Don't despair though, the UK is re-emerging as a leading engineering body, we have several great engineering consultancies that earn lots of fees from abroad and we are the leading country in motor sport design, also we're pretty handy with aircraft design, ship design, medical equipment design etc. Manufacturing such items is not presently our forte but it can be. There seems a reluctance to shout about our skills from the rooftops and I'd like to see a body set up to do that.
Sorry to mention Brexit, but that will be our big chance to re-establish ourselves in a world leading role if we have the will to do it.
Harry