An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

98A CHRONICLE OF THE ENGINEERING COUNCILequipment or on travel and subsistence. With a certain amount of tongue in cheek the EngCgave the impression that this had been its intention all along.A pilot scheme began in 1991 offering a Personal Development Logbook to engineeringstudents who satisfied the EngC’s Stage 1 (Education) requirements for IEng who hadregistered, but had not yet joined an Engineering Institution.‘Attaining Competence in Engineering Design (ACED)’ was published in April 1991 forstudents interested in this specialist area.The EngC Examinations were re-publicised throughout the UK during 1991, resulting inseveral thousand requests for details. An overseas publicity campaign was planned. Threenew preparation courses at colleges began in the UK, including a first in Northern Ireland.Entries for the 1992 examinations increased by 7% for both UK and overseas candidatesbringing the total to 3,857. A further three colleges submitted candidates for the first time, afeat that was repeated again in 1993. The aim and scope for the compulsory subject ‘Engineerin Society’ was revised in 1992 for the 1993 examination and new syllabuses were developedduring 1992 and 1993 in electrical, control and information systems engineering in time forthe 1995 examination. Further topics were considered and approved by the BER during 1995for incorporation into the information systems’ papers.The EngC prepared a report in 1995 on ‘Competence-based Higher Education and theStandards methodology’, based on research by the University of East Anglia and funded bythe Employment Department. The report provided an overview of initial teacher training,vocational training of general medical practitioners, engineering education and environmentalscience.Top Flight BursariesFor students in the first year of an accredited engineering degree course ‘Top Flight –Bursaries for Engineering Students’ was published in October 1993 as a prelude to the TopFlight Bursary Scheme. This scheme, devised to attract highly-talented people to a career inengineering, managed by the EngC and funded by the DEE was formally launched in 1994.Students on, or about to embark upon, full-time, sandwich and part-time courses that satisfiedall the educational requirements for registration as Chartered Engineers were eligible. Therewere 2,108 approved applications in 1994 and 2,220 in 1995. Some students withdrew,leaving 4,209 who received the £500 bursary for each year of their courses, in addition totheir maintenance grants. The associated brochure was republished in August 1994, August1995 and July 1996.Towards an up-dating of SARTORResponding to changes in the schools’ National Curriculum and other significant educationprovision developments, three working groups under the executive direction of ProfessorKeith Foster, Director Engineering Profession, were established by the EngC in 1991 to lookat (a) Needs, Demand and Supply, (b) Structure, Methods and Means, and (c) Standards ofAttainment. The aim was to conduct a Review of Engineers’ Formation to create a system ofEngineering Education and Training that was more attractive, effective and appropriate toyoung people and their employers. A small steering group, chaired by Sir John Fairclough,© Engineering Council UK 2004