Engineering: How you can build a better world

When Mark Dixon was at university, he was often met with stifled and even unconcealed yawns when he told people what he was studying. "That's the problem with engineering in the UK and certainly a major reason for the skills shortage in the subject," believes the technical director of DeepSea Engineering. "It's seen as dull and unexciting, when in fact it is at the cutting edge of technology."

You won't find such negative attitudes in other European countries or America, he insists. "There, if you say you're studying engineering, people say, 'Wow' because it's seen as one of the big four vocational trades along with doctors, lawyers and accountants. I think there is also a greater recognition in these countries that engineers are responsible for most of the newest technologies."

He provides examples of current high-tech projects in his own firm. "We're in charge of the steel pipelines that reach from the floating production unit to the bottom of the sea - a total of 3km. Imagine a pipe going 3km into the air and you'll start to realise how challenging the dynamics of that are and how much technology is involved in making it work."

Another project involves solving the problem of oil clogging up at seabed level. "That has led us to begin the processing on the seabed instead of the floating production unit. Again, this involves a huge amount of technology," Dixon says.

Stephen Nuttall, a 24-year-old graduate engineer at the technical consultancy FIRSTCo, says he has been astounded at the level of technological sophistication he's been involved in since joining the company in January. "For example, I'm involved in upgrading the Heathrow Express so there's a network for data to be available all around the airport. There are so many different communications technologies involved in this that every day is different and you feel you're shaping tomorrow's world."

For Naomi Dukes, a 23-year-old graduate engineer at Atkins, it was the technology alone that drew her to the job. "I decided to go into defence because there's technology involved at every step - from producing an aircraft wing to making a particular kind of tank work," she says. "Every day, I feel as though my technical know-how is improving and that makes for an extremely exciting daily life."

Increasingly, graduates are working on such technologies overseas. "One of our graduates has recently gone to Antarctica, where she's been involved in the British Antarctic Survey's new facility," says Ken Dalton, CEO of the engineering consultancy Faber Maunsell. "There, she helped create a highly sustainable building in one of the most challenging environments in the world."

Meanwhile, Mike Crisp, 25, who works for Hyder Consulting, says, "Having graduated last year and joined the firm a year ago, I've already spent three months in our Doha office in Qatar, where I was involved in designing a network to distribute water. The thing about doing a project like that is you start from scratch to build a huge system in a short space of time, rather than improving an existing system as you might do over here. We did this by working on a computer model of the distribution network, which we refined and validated. It was very skilled work, which I learned a lot from, and it was great work in such a different culture."

Back in the UK, as Crisp points out, graduates in some fields of engineering will find themselves working on mature technologies. But Neil MacDonald, 22, who is on the graduate training scheme at Scottish Power, says that doesn't necessarily make the work any less stimulating. "A lot of the infrastructure I work on is 50 to 60 years old, but I actually prefer this because once you've developed knowledge around it, you can become an expert. Those working with newer technologies, on the other hand, have to keep up with a lot of rapid changes. It's just a matter of different personalities suiting different kinds of work, and all can be exciting."

Both he and Crisp talk about their contribution to society as being a major motivating factor for working in engineering. Indeed, there are literally thousands of life-changing technologies that today's graduate engineers are working on. "I really like the fact that the country needs its electricity supply and while most people take it for granted, I help to make it a reality," says MacDonald. "Because my job involves providing new methods of supplying the electricity, my work also has an indirect impact on the growth of the country as a whole."

Once MacDonald had decided to pursue engineering as a career (like many, he loved working out how things worked as a child, then found he was drawn to science and mathematics at school), he took a degree that coupled engineering with business studies. "I'm really pleased I did that because whatever job you have as an engineer, it's useful to understand how some of the economics that surround your job fit in. It can also be very helpful for when you have to work with budgets," he says.

Richard Spragg, communications director of the international engineering staffing company EPCglobal, confirms that many of the best graduate roles are given to people who have combined engineering with some kind of business study - or at the very least, taken a module or two in an aspect of it, such as HR or finance. He believes it is part of the bigger trend towards engineering graduates being required to have a wider skill set than in the past. "While engineering has historically been viewed as a sector where you keep your head down and get on with the work, the days of being given nothing but a drawing board and a desk are long gone. Today's engineering employers want people with skills in managing people, communications, consultancy, project planning and finance," he explains.

Spragg believes there has never been a more exciting time to become an engineer. "Take the Olympics, for instance. The projects that this will involve will provide interesting work, as well as the opportunity to put something on your CV that will resound through history. Then there are areas like nuclear power and rail design, where the world is your oyster. For example, many of today's graduates are working on Portugal's high speed rail link and others are taking up some truly fascinating roles in China."

He adds that as a graduate engineer, you no longer need to wait 10 years for your first "chunky" project. "The skills shortage means that you'll no longer have to kick your heels, watching your senior colleagues take all the exciting projects. You'll be out there yourself."

Belinda Morgan, a partner at RW Gregory, a building services engineering company, points to another reward of working in engineering. "You have a vision and you watch it turn into something tangible. There aren't that many jobs you can say that about."

Robert Sturdy, a 23-year-old engineering graduate at White Young Green, is a case in point. "I'm working on a £553m hospital project and when we've finished, there'll be something physical I had an input into creating. The fact it's a hospital makes it even more rewarding."

'As a child, I'd break toys and make them into different things'

Akin Akinyemi, 22, is a product test engineer for Freescale Semiconductor in Glasgow. He joined the company six weeks ago on a graduate placement scheme.

As a child, I couldn't get enough of technology. I'd break toys and make them into different things to test their functionality. As I got older, I channelled my analytical skills into more sophisticated challenges and it became clear that engineering would be a logical career choice.

I studied electronic and electric engineering with business studies for my degree. I veered more towards the electronics side because I'm into multimedia gadgets and anything to do with communications. I did a couple of placements as part of this degree to check out the industries I could go into and I wound up here once I'd graduated.

I've only been in my job for six weeks, so it's still very new, but the reason it appealed to me is because it is all about top-end technology. What I'm doing right now is product test engineering for new pre-market electronic chips for the automotive markets. If you look on a dashboard of any car, you'll see electronics controlling certain features through dials and displays and that's what the chips are for.

Once I've finished this three-month placement, I'll be moving to another department. I could be working on test engineering for a different product or in a more applications based role. It's great to get this wide range of experience because it will help me choose the role I want to settle in. My advice to anyone wanting to get involved in cutting-edge technology is to work in engineering. You really do wind up at the forefront of it.

'What I most enjoy is that no two days are the same'

Elizabeth Bostock, 26, is a process technologist for Shell and is currently working in the Netherlands. She joined the company three years ago on a graduate recruitment scheme.

My job involves providing technical support for the plant to which I'm assigned. My responsibilities involve monitoring and troubleshooting for the plant but also developing longer-term improvement projects. These vary from production capacity increase to safety and environmental projects.

When I joined Shell, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I did know that I wanted to work in an operational environment and to use the knowledge and skills I'd developed in my studies. The position I have now has fulfilled both of these criteria and given me the added bonus of living in a foreign country and learning a new language.

My technical knowledge is being constantly developed and challenged. I also have the room to be able to develop my own initiatives and ideas, while being fully supported by my more experienced colleagues.

My role as a process technologist has exceeded my expectations - my first task was to make a change to the internals of the reactors which had to be implemented in the plant shutdown the following year. This gave me a taster of responsibility from day one of my Shell career. What I enjoy most about my job is the fact that no two days are the same.

As a chemical engineering graduate, I wanted to work in an energy company that would not only allow me to develop my existing knowledge in a number of areas, but also to build new skills in a function not related to my background. I've been able to do just that.