An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

54A CHRONICLE OF THE ENGINEERING COUNCILTaken collectively, the activities of the Industrial Affiliates, the Technical Reviews, thePrince of Wales Award for Industrial Innovation, the “European Engineer” title and the“Young Engineer for Britain” represented solid advancement of the EngC’s aims in relationto industry and the employment of engineers. Unfortunately this momentum was not alwaysto be sustained in later years.Interfacing with the PublicAn analysis of the media coverage for 1986 shows that some 525 reports emanating from, orabout, the EngC were published in national and regional trade, technical and institutionalpapers and journals. Of these, 90 appeared in national papers and many were of featurelength. In addition there were 31 television and radio broadcasts of which 23 were national.Examples of publications issued in 1986 include, in January, ‘Take Action for Engineering -Industry Year 1986’, and ‘The Board for Engineers’ Registration’ [the latter was republishedin April and October 1986] and ‘A Closer Look at Engineering’ in June. In that month also abooklet ‘Managing Design for Competitive Advantage’ was published in conjunction withthe Design Council [it was reprinted in March 1989] to encourage managers to review theirdesign processes as a means of improving profitability and competitiveness. A GuidanceStatement on Engineering Council Registrants and Trade Union membership was publishedin July 1986.In 1987 the EngC’s curriculum-related publications were accepted onto the nationalElectronic Resources Information Service (NERIS) database; they were then available inschools and other educational establishments via Prestel and The Times Network Systems(TTNS). In July The Times published ‘A Special Report on Tomorrow’s Engineers’.The biennial ‘Survey of Chartered and Technician Engineers’, sampling 27,000 of the300,000 registrants, was published in October 1987. This showed that over the past 12months more Registrants had received further training than during the previous survey ofOctober 1985, especially on courses on business studies and management training. The grossaverage earnings for Chartered and Incorporated Engineers had kept comfortably ahead ofprices (as had the published survey selling at £50 in 1987 compared with £25 in 1985!).‘The Consumer Protection Act 1987 – A Stimulus for Improving Safety’, which was astatement on the perceived effects of the Consumer Protection Act, 1987, was published inMarch 1988 in the EngC’s blue booklet series on awareness of technology. Some 15,000copies were distributed through the British Standards Institution, The Society of BritishAerospace Companies, The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, the EngineeringIndustries Association and the Engineering Employers’ Federation.Fig. 6 illustrates EngC publications produced in 1987 alone. These demonstrate thesuccessful efforts of the Industry Directorate and the Engineering Profession Directoratetogether with the presentational skills of Public Affairs. With all the activities relating toeducation, industry and the public, the statement in the Annual Report that 1987 was “theyear in which there was a marked improvement in the [Engineering] Council’s nationalstatus” was well founded.© Engineering Council UK 2004