Customer and practice

A consortium of UK universities has launched a research project to tackle the growing demand for professional engineers readily-equipped with service sector skills.

Funded by BAE Systems and the EPSRC,

(IfM) is leading the team to explore how engineers can become better prepared for an industry that is moving to provide product-related services as well as products themselves.

Other universities involved include Bath, Queens in Belfast, Cranfield, Exeter, Leeds, Loughborough, Nottingham and Salford.

'Roughly 50 per cent of engineering students and increasingly more end up in service-type jobs,' said Prof Duncan McFarlane, head of IfM service and support engineering. This leads to challenges they are often unprepared for, such as cutting costs, meeting environmental goals and using new engineering techniques to make the most of existing infrastructure.

'Another big thing is that manufacturing industries are now embracing services connected to their products and trying to build full-life services — whether it is connected to a car or a Hewlett-Packard (HP) printer, they are trying to look at different models for giving service to the customer throughout the item's life,' he added.