Engineering degrees......

[BaconAndAvocado]

DS2 currently in Year 11 and will be taking A levels in Maths, Chemistry and Physics.
He doesn’t know what degree/career path to take.
I wondered whether Engineering might be for him?
Please can someone give a brief description of the different types of engineering degrees/careers.

tia

That's such a broad question!

Read this https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/the-student-engineer/careers-in-engineering-a-beginner-s-guide/

And. https://www.brightnetwork.co.uk/career-path-guides/bright-guide-engineering/careers-in-engineering/

Then pick a random uni and look at the degree courses offered. Nottingham, Sheffield, Warwick for example.

Engineering lends itself to degree apprenticeships well too.

This website gives lots of information on different types of engineering
www.tomorrowsengineers.org.uk/

My DC is in the same position and trying to work out whether they need to do further maths too for the most competitive engineering degrees.

DS liked the idea of applying maths and physics to manufacture or model useful things, he saw an engineering degree as a way to hopefully do this. I do think some courses want further maths as well.

Mia85 I think I would get your DC to look at individual university courses to see about further maths.

Thanks all.
Is Further Maths essential for an engineering degree?
Although DS2 is in top set Maths at a grammar school, he wasn’t selected to do FM.

www.universityfinder.org.uk/blog/post/guide-to-engineering-disciplines

Helpful page giving a quick overview.

He should investigate it himself but it's a really wide field, with all kinds of roles, also extremely employable. Going to a Big bang fair or similar event is a good way to get a taste.

Sorry I meant further maths a level not gcse. Our school doesn’t do the further maths gcse but does do a level

DD's degree is in robotics, she's an engineer in the military

And no further maths isn't essential but if his school allows it, it's helpful as a 4th a level

For a pure engineering course, then probably FM would be useful. DS is studying engineering and they advised that if the school offered FM, they would expect you to take it. However, he was applying to Cambridge/Imperial etc. A friend of his is doing Design Engineering and as it is far more design led than maths led, he only needed maths, not FM.

However, yesterday I was talking to a friend who runs an engineering company and he said they (and peers of his at companies like Rolls Royce etc) say they struggle to get decent engineers because the DT/Design Engineering degrees are not comparable to a traditional, maths heavy engineering course at a top uni.

I guess therefore it depends what sort of engineering he thinks he is interested in...a bit like "surveying" (my former profession) it's a broad and varied discipline!

My son has an offer for engineering at Imperial and UCL and he did say the test and questions asked at the interview for Imperial were high level maths / FM based and they expect you to have FM A level as a 4th subject if school offers it.

Look st getting work experience, especially for the more competitive universities.

I'm taking yr10 DS to Loughborough Uni open day on 1 July, see if I can inspire him to be interested in the types of engineering they offer. DS is definitely a practical doer in personality. He is not constrained by needing competitive Uni, luckily.

Hi, OP -

I am writing as a former Russell Group STEM admissions tutor. I think Engineering is worth investigating. It might capture the imagination of your DS. Alternatively, thinking about why it does not may spark the realisation that he prefers one of his A level subjects - each of them has excellent careers potential.

As PPs have said, the subject is vast and some of the most competitive Engineering Schools will want FM given that the school offers it. One that does not is the lesser remarked gem that is Sheffield (not my institution).

To focus for the moment on Mechanical Engineering, which makes very strong use of Maths and Physics and has outstanding employment prospects, Sheffield was in the top 5 in the UK in the last REF (research ranking) and came top in the the Russell Group in last year’s NSS (student satisfaction survey). One can certainly read too much into rankings, particularly the NSS, but Sheffield has long been known to insiders and employers for the strength of its Engineering and this is a very potent combination. I doubt these excellent results for Mech Eng exist in a vacuum.

Good luck to your DS

I’d say FM if the school offers it is going to be a requirement at the Oxbridge / Imperial level, but there are highly respected courses at many other universities too. If DC can take FM as a fourth subject then they may well have the option of dropping it after a year (taking it as an AS) if it is too much.

Some places give a slightly lower offer for 4 a levels if these include further maths.
Imperial do a maths test as part of their admission process.
Just look up entry requirements for places your DS/DD might like and see what they ask for.
https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings/mechanical-engineering
For rankings (well one version).
Agree with previous poster about Sheffield - my ds loved it, but decided on degree apprenticeship route.

Thanks v much for the fm advice and sorry for hijacking the thread op!

As someone who works in the industry. Civil and structural engineering are very calculation heavy.

There's also mechanical engineering (M&E).

If he wants to do any of the above then get him to look at sponsored degrees or graduate programmes with companies as SO many offer them! And it really makes me disappointed that kids today aren't exploring these options!

Daughter and sister of an engineer here. It can be a really wide and varied industry. Both my dad and brother are in computing. My dad was there right at the start of home computing (shame he kept picking the wrong start ups lol)

My 6 year old wants to be an engineer too, he loves the problem solving and creative sides of it.

Might be worth him starting with looking at the main fields of engineering and seeing if any jump out.

I don't think Further Maths is essential but I think if he's at a school which offers it there may be questions about why he's not taken it. You need very high grades to get into university to do engineering, often higher than stated in the prospectuses. My son is hoping to do Aeronautical Engineering. There's mechanical, electrical, biomedical and civil as well.