Engineering professions 1 Fair access
CIBSE takes the initiative
License to practice CIBSE together with BEST has launched a new development route offering professional recognition for apprentices. The scheme will allow Level Three apprentices to receive professional accreditation as engineering technicians after completing qualifying criteria, laid down by the Engineering Council. To support the launch, BEST will organise and pay for the first year’s membership subscription of the appropriate professional institution for all Level Three apprentices starting in 2010/11. For details, visit: www. bestlicensetopractice. com
New CIBSE career factsheets CIBSE has released three new career factsheets to help provide information on building services to young people and help inform them when making choices about their future. The new factsheets – entitled Talking to the Parents, Fighting climate change’ and Creative design in BSE – bring the total of factsheets available to 12. They are all available at
www.cibse.org/careers or you can order hard copies by emailing
aringguth@cibse.org
>
family businesses and ‘coming up through the tools’, and typical routes to enter involve three years as an undergraduate followed by a period as a paid graduate trainee. The alternative to this is work-based learning in employment, such as an apprenticeship, with part- time study. Compared with other professions, this would suggest
there are few financial barriers. However, in evidence to the Fair Access Panel, CIBSE highlighted four other barriers. These were: • Shortages of apprenticeships offered by employers; • Some females still seeing engineering as a predominantly male preserve;
• The difficulty experienced by otherwise competent entrants in demonstrating the required levels of mathematics; and
• Unfairness in the tariffs system for UCAS points – good marks in science and maths A Levels are seen as generally harder to achieve. CIBSE says it has taken a range of steps to counter
these barriers. For example, via the E4E initiative, it is trying to influence the curriculum in schools (see right). Careers brochures and presentations feature female members of the institution, and women are actively encouraged to participate on committees and panels. Groups have been set up on networking websites such as LinkedIn and Twitter as a way for CIBSE’s female members to keep in touch and share news, views and ideas. The institution says that it also champions the
secondary school diploma in Construction and the Built Environment, and supports the Foundation Degree currently being developed for the sector. The institution is also developing its outreach programme to school children, focused on the ‘Low Carbon Heroes’, at the national Big Bang Fair. CIBSE has also entered into a partnership with
Building Engineering Services Training (BEST), the training provider for the sector, to launch a new
Policy group aims to influence government
A new body is working to influence education policy at the highest level so that the UK can educate, train, attract and retain engineers at every level, according to CIBSE. E4E was set up to address a ‘critical area’ and
place engineering on a similar footing to maths and science, which enjoy high status in the national curriculum. Representing 36 professional engineering
bodies, the group aims to initiate and contribute to policy debates, provide high-quality information and analysis, and ensure that all learners can make connections across learning that support an education for engineering. Crucially the body aims to highlight the needs of future engineers and routes into engineering that are open to all. Through CIBSE past-president Doug Oughton,
who chairs the operational group of E4E, it is hoped that the profile of building services will be boosted. This is particularly important when government
is looking to green technologies to create a low carbon economy for the UK and it’s in this arena where new engineers are badly needed, says CIBSE.
development route involving professional recognition for apprenticeship. It is hoped the scheme will raise awareness of professional qualifications for young apprentices working with companies. The idea is to enrol Advanced Modern Apprentices into student membership with progression to Licentiate Member and EngTech Registration. Terry Giles, a CIBSE Council member and former
chairman of the institution’s education and training committee, says: ‘Initially this will provide a seamless process for the Advanced Apprentice who is studying at level NVQ3 to become Student Member of CIBSE. The intention of the initiative is to sign up apprentices as student members at the start of their programme, and in so doing, to develop their skills against the competencies set out for Licentiate EngTech.’ Giles points out that the CIBSE Careers Panel has
undertaken significant work to provide factsheets for schools, parents and careers advisers. While it’s clear that CIBSE is taking steps to attract
Employers who only seek building services engineering candidates with several years’ experience and chartered status are ‘excluding anyone under 30 who isn’t in the field’, it is argued
32 CIBSE Journal November 2010
more young people to its sector, the engineering industry as a whole still has more to do to achieve ‘fairness’. But, as the Fair Access Panel’s report shows, other leading professions have much bigger obstacles to fairness in place compared with engineering, and would do well to look to the latter for good examples of how to cut these barriers down to size. l The work of the Fair Access Panel can be found at:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://
www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/strategy/work_areas/ accessprofessions.aspx
www.cibsejournal.com
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