• Question: how do you become an enganeer?

    Asked by AJ99 to Paul, Abbie on 11 Mar 2016. This question was also asked by 652rbte33.
    • Photo: Paul Webb

      Paul Webb answered on 11 Mar 2016:


      You usually do an apprentiship or become a graduate engineer, depends on the route you would like to take if you want to go through university the graduate route is for you, if not the apprentiship

      I have an advanced modern apprentiship which means I could of finished at level 3 and I stayed on to Finnish lv 5

      Abbie will have lv 6 after university, I’m guessing correct me if I’m wrong Abbie then moved on to a masters being lv 7

      Cheers

    • Photo: Abbie Hutty

      Abbie Hutty answered on 13 Mar 2016:


      There are loads of different ways and it depends what your skills or favourite things to do are as to which would be best for you.

      One way is to do your GCSEs and then apply for an apprenticeship. These can be craft apprenticeships, which tend to be more practical and hands on, and have lower academic entry criteria because of that- the skills you need are more hands on than academic. So I think at Airbus Defence and Space, where I work, you should have, or be expecting to gain at least a grade D in Maths and four GCSEs including English and a Science to be eligible to apply. Then its a 3 year apprenticeship, for which you get paid the whole time, and then you become an engineer.

      If you prefer the idea of being a technical or design engineer rather than being so hands on, you can do an engineering apprenticeship. To be considered for the scheme you will need to have at least 4 GCSE’s (or predicted) grade C or above, two of which must be English and Science and a GCSE Grade B or above in Maths. Then again its a three year scheme, with the first year full time at college and then the second and third years alternating 10 weeks at college with 10 week placements around the company. After that you can either start work as an engineer with the qualification you gained through the scheme, or start work but apply to do a degree on a day release from work, and you’d get all your fees paid for by the company which is a pretty amazing deal! You then end up as a graduate engineer but having not paid any tuition fees, and having actually been paid a salary for the whole time as well!

      Another popular way is to do a degree. That can be an engineering degree, or sometimes even a physics or maths degree depending on what the final job is you want to do. So then you’d do A-levels, which would probably have to include maths and physics, and then going to do your uni course, either a Batchelors (BEng) or Masters (MEng) then you’d apply to companies’ graduate schemes for your job. That’s what I did – a Masters degree at the University of Surrey, and then into the Airbus Graduate Scheme.

      There are probably other ways as well but those tend to be the three most popular options!

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