The subject of engineering education which always engages readers, and last week's poll continued this trend. We received 416 responses to the poll, and although no option received a clear majority of votes, the largest proportion of respondents, 39 per cent, thought that increasing industry involvement with schools was the most important factor in improving the ability of students entering engineering courses. The next largest, 25 per cent, though there was merit in the idea of creating an engineering A-level. Making existing A-levels more relevant to engineering courses was a favoured option of 13 per cent, while smallest group, 8 per cent of respondents, agreed with the IET that the International Baccalaureate syllabus would provide a better basis than A-levels. A quite large group, 15%, declined to pick one of our options.
Please continue to send us your views on this subject.
Five ways to prepare for your first day
If I may add my own personal Tip No. 6 it goes something like this: From time to time a more senior member of staff will start explaining something...