Editorial Comment:

Selection of introduction from report: This report details findings from a research project designed to provide the Engineering and Technology Board (ETB) with evidence relating to the early experiences in business and industry of graduate engineers and technologists. A specific focus of this research relates to the views of such graduates about the ‘completeness’ of their education – the extent to which undergraduate or graduate studies prepared them for their early career experiences.

There has been a substantial volume of research on employment in the engineering sector. This has mainly concentrated on the difficulties companies have recruiting craft level engineers (i.e. apprenticed engineers) or the decline in the number of first year entrants to engineering and engineering related degree courses. Other evidence points to there being considerable variation in the ‘A’ level scores of those entering engineering courses at university; the scores of entrants appear to reveal substantial proportions with either relatively high or low scores. Concerns have also been raised about the quality of engineering graduates, especially their lack of transferable skills and some evidence points to recent engineering graduates having slightly higher unemployment rates compared to graduates overall. This has been explained with reference to the poorly developed skills of engineering graduates, although the evidence to prove this point is conspicuously absent. Other research suggests that many companies face critical skill gaps within their organisation due to an absence of professional engineers who possess both high level technical and managerial competence. This research is therefore timely in gathering the views of engineering and technology graduates on weaknesses and gaps in their education that they perceive during their first few years of employment.