I recieved this email earlier from my university. Would appreciate it if you could spare 30 seconds to sign.
Dear Sir,
I am an engineering masters degree student at Swansea University. During my time at Swansea my fellow engineering students and I have decided that something needs to be done about what society thinks an engineer is and does.
A careers’ talk was given last week to the secondary school children by a postgraduate student engineer, he asked a room of children what they thought an ‘engineer’ was. Their unanimous response was one of agreement that an engineer is someone who “fixes things”.
Another issue that arose was a simple job advertisement in the local paper, it read “Hair Engineer required”. The term ‘engineer’ is being misused and quite frankly abused. The mind boggles when one sees society treat a hair-dresser and the likes of Ismbard Kingdom Brunel with the same amount of respect.
We came to realise that something needs to change. This is a point of contention that has regularly appeared in various engineering publications. However, no serious attempt has been made to change the perception that society has, granted, it is not a simple quick-fix situation. It was soon decided that a petition would be made to legally protect the title of ‘Engineer’ in Britain as it is in many other countries worldwide, USA, Canada, Germany and France to name a few.
An e-petition has been created at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/. There is a small team currently working on this campaign, the petition was finally accepted today (30 January 2013) and will remain online until 12 months from today. The aim is to gain a sufficient number of signatures to prompt the government and more importantly the cabinet to consider a change in law to legally protect the title. This will prevent the non-professionals from using the term engineer and over time this will change the opinions that society will have for us engineers.
The aim of this is to hopefully change the opinions of those young children, to encourage them to pursue a career in engineering. The subject is well known for being a difficult one to study; the students need more of an incentive to study such a subject.
Protecting this title will also (eventually) increase the salaries of engineers nationwide and bring them up to a level on par with other countries. In the United States of America an engineer is treated far differently than they are here in Britain. Stateside, when the term engineer is used it is instantly associated with respect and admiration. So what has gone wrong in Britain?
Britain used to be the great power in terms of engineering, the likes of Brunel, Sir Frank Whittle, Sir Barnes Wallis and Sir Henry Royce, these no longer exist. We do however have many engineers that can be mentioned in the same sentence as those previously mentioned, such as Sir James Dyson and Adrian Newey, however they rarely are.
The likes of Dyson and Newey are great role models for the next generation, let us support this; let us make Britain Great again.
After reading this, I’m sure you might be thinking “What does this have to do with me?”, well we need to spread the word for this petition. We need you to email this to every engineering and science student you have studying under your faculty. There are more than 300 universities in Britain; most teach a form of engineering or science. A target of 100,000 signatures is required before it is discussed among our politicians at Westminster. If each university has 1000 students studying these subjects then a sufficient number of signatures will be achieved.
The aim is to gain support from the large organisations and companies nationwide, before this can be done, a vast number of signatures are required in order to prove that the cause is worthwhile.
The direct link to the e-petition is as follows:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/44889
We would greatly appreciate your support on the matter, please send this out to all students and staff alike.
Thank you.
Kind Regards
Bradley Cox and the team
Dear Sir,
I am an engineering masters degree student at Swansea University. During my time at Swansea my fellow engineering students and I have decided that something needs to be done about what society thinks an engineer is and does.
A careers’ talk was given last week to the secondary school children by a postgraduate student engineer, he asked a room of children what they thought an ‘engineer’ was. Their unanimous response was one of agreement that an engineer is someone who “fixes things”.
Another issue that arose was a simple job advertisement in the local paper, it read “Hair Engineer required”. The term ‘engineer’ is being misused and quite frankly abused. The mind boggles when one sees society treat a hair-dresser and the likes of Ismbard Kingdom Brunel with the same amount of respect.
We came to realise that something needs to change. This is a point of contention that has regularly appeared in various engineering publications. However, no serious attempt has been made to change the perception that society has, granted, it is not a simple quick-fix situation. It was soon decided that a petition would be made to legally protect the title of ‘Engineer’ in Britain as it is in many other countries worldwide, USA, Canada, Germany and France to name a few.
An e-petition has been created at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/. There is a small team currently working on this campaign, the petition was finally accepted today (30 January 2013) and will remain online until 12 months from today. The aim is to gain a sufficient number of signatures to prompt the government and more importantly the cabinet to consider a change in law to legally protect the title. This will prevent the non-professionals from using the term engineer and over time this will change the opinions that society will have for us engineers.
The aim of this is to hopefully change the opinions of those young children, to encourage them to pursue a career in engineering. The subject is well known for being a difficult one to study; the students need more of an incentive to study such a subject.
Protecting this title will also (eventually) increase the salaries of engineers nationwide and bring them up to a level on par with other countries. In the United States of America an engineer is treated far differently than they are here in Britain. Stateside, when the term engineer is used it is instantly associated with respect and admiration. So what has gone wrong in Britain?
Britain used to be the great power in terms of engineering, the likes of Brunel, Sir Frank Whittle, Sir Barnes Wallis and Sir Henry Royce, these no longer exist. We do however have many engineers that can be mentioned in the same sentence as those previously mentioned, such as Sir James Dyson and Adrian Newey, however they rarely are.
The likes of Dyson and Newey are great role models for the next generation, let us support this; let us make Britain Great again.
After reading this, I’m sure you might be thinking “What does this have to do with me?”, well we need to spread the word for this petition. We need you to email this to every engineering and science student you have studying under your faculty. There are more than 300 universities in Britain; most teach a form of engineering or science. A target of 100,000 signatures is required before it is discussed among our politicians at Westminster. If each university has 1000 students studying these subjects then a sufficient number of signatures will be achieved.
The aim is to gain support from the large organisations and companies nationwide, before this can be done, a vast number of signatures are required in order to prove that the cause is worthwhile.
The direct link to the e-petition is as follows:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/44889
We would greatly appreciate your support on the matter, please send this out to all students and staff alike.
Thank you.
Kind Regards
Bradley Cox and the team
