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Advanced Career Study With Engineering Universities

The term 'engineering' is used in many different ways. If you've chosen to explore training in Automotive and/or Aeronautical Engineering, it's likely you're looking for a technical challenge and an exciting career. The United Kingdom boasts a very technically advanced aerospace sector comprising of over six hundred companies turning over more than seventeen billion between them, according to Loughborough University. Similarly the automotive industry here provides design, development and manufacturing work for around three hundred thousand people.

Finding The Right Training Courses

You'll find a very high concentration of aero and auto engineering based undergraduate degree courses in the UK - many with international reputations. Plus some go on to provide postgraduate-level study as well. Diplomas and other vocational certifications are also available from some colleges. Degree courses can be studied with or without an industrial placement year. Engineering departments often have good links with industry for gaining work experience.

Part-time sandwich training is also an option for those who prefer to split their time between studying and working. There are opportunities for some students to get sponsored whilst at university. This also usually means a work placement afterwards. Whatever your circumstances and ambitions, look into as many training alternatives as possible.

Automotive Engineers

All cars, bikes, coaches and heavy goods vehicles come under the remit of auto engineering. Today's auto engineers need to understand electronic and software engineering as well as mechanical and electrical. As standards are constantly set to improve to accommodate global issues, new technologies such as ultra low emissions are being introduced.

In the life cycle of a vehicle, design engineering comes first, followed by development engineering and then manufacturing engineering. The designers have to create the parts on a vehicle and ensure that they meet all of the stated requirements. The development engineers' co-ordinate the engineering attributes of vehicles. These engineers often have to liaise with designers on certain specs. With all the design and development work complete, the manufacturing engineers have to build the vehicle.

Degree courses in automotive engineering are very demanding, but extremely interesting. Throughout your training you will learn about all three stages of the automotive engineering processes. Auto engineers must be fully conversant with safety engineering - so tests are done for example to check resistance to rollover, seat belt and air bag functionality and front and side crash impacts.

Whilst each individual system has to perform its job properly, it also has to complement the rest of the vehicle. That's why automotive engineering students need to learn about the work of development engineers. Sometimes opposing requirements have to be taken through a trade-off process, to ensure each system doesn't compromise another. Finally the development engineer has to conduct tests on the full vehicle, such as level testing, validation and certification.

The manufacturing process takes over once all the design and development work has been done. Parts have to be assembled, (usually in separate plants) and vehicles built to the exacting standards of the manufacturing engineers. Safety procedures have to be applied to every stage of manufacture - from design of equipment and layout of people, to machine and line rates and all automated tasks.

Engineering - Aeronautical

Aero engineering is all about turning ideas into reality by applying scientific principles to produce sophisticated flight products. Individuals interested in aeronautical engineering must be intelligent self starters with the capacity for analytical, innovative and technical thought processes. Only those who relish a challenge should consider a career in aeronautics. As an aside - Formula One racing cars share a common technological base with modern airliners.

Atmospheric pressure and temperature changes place huge stresses on aircraft during flights. Due to the complexity of flight vehicle development and design, it would be impossible to learn enough about all the technologies involved, so teams of engineers deal in their own specialisations.

Training courses will go into depth on aircraft design and flight mechanics, and feature a strong emphasis on analysis. Modules that deal with solving problems, like thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, are what we mean by analytical subjects. In recent years advances in computing mean that simulations can be used to test the behaviour of fluid, which lessens the need for expensive wind tunnel research. All the same, students shouldn't miss out on aeronautical projects that carry out tests in wind tunnels.

Engineering students will get a lot of practical hands-on experience. Degree course students will have a practical group assignment at some stage to design their own functional vehicle. Engineering degrees will also allow students to learn various other subjects and skills. Such areas as time-management, writing skills and presenting can all help at interview.

Highly skilled engineering professionals can pursue a variety of extremely rewarding career opportunities that involve leading-edge technology. Graduates and Post-graduates can gain professional recognition as Incorporated Engineers or Chartered Engineers.