Aircraft Engineering introductory year, foundation degree FdEng and top-up year BSc(Hons): Why choose aircraft engineering?

Flying is one of the safest forms of travel, and the UK's air safety record is one of the best. A fundamental part of air safety is the role of the qualified engineers who carry out the aircraft maintenance necessary to ensure the certification and continued airworthiness of aircraft.

All work carried out on aircraft must be certified (signed-off) by an appropriately licensed engineer. Not everybody who works on aircraft is licensed – for every licensed engineer working on an aircraft there are a number of mechanics who perform basic maintenance (such as removing and fitting equipment and components, checking pressures and quantities, topping up fluids, and simple fault diagnosis) who cannot certify any of the work they do.

When a licensed engineer certifies work, they are signing to say that:

• the work has been properly carried out;
• the correct manuals were consulted;
• the correct procedures were followed;
• the correct tools were used;
• the appropriate checks and tests were carried out;
• the component or system is fit for service; and
• the aircraft is fit to fly.

We like to think that the standards of aircraft engineering training goes a long way to maintaining the UK's continued safety record. However, aircraft engineers are an endangered species, not only in the UK, but all around the world. A predicted shortfall of 5,000–6,000 aircraft engineers in the next four years means that a qualification in aircraft engineering will stand you in good stead in the job market.

Why is there such a shortage?

• Traditionally, there has been a rich source of qualified engineers from the armed forces. However, numbers entering and leaving the services have declined.
• There is forecast to be high retirement rate of experienced engineers who are not being replaced by newly-qualified engineers.
• As competition amongst aviation operators has increased, many organisations have had their engineering training budgets severely restricted, due to the high costs associated with training aircraft engineers. As a result, traditional sponsored apprenticeships have all but disappeared.

The severe skills shortage within the aviation industry is a major concern, with many organisations struggling to find suitably qualified engineers. Whilst these organisations are required to provide specific aircraft training, they are not required to provide the basic knowledge training. As a result, few establishments are prepared to fund this very expensive type of training.

Read more at www.graduateengineer.com and the Department for Transport's report of the Inter-departmental Working Group on the Training of Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (PDF).