Dyson sets up college to tackle skills shortage

Dyson sets up college to tackle skills shortage

Inventor Sir James Dyson is to open his own institute to train engineers, who he says are badly needed if UK companies are to remain competitive.
The Dyson Institute of Technology, opening in autumn 2017, will create home-grown talent, says Sir James.
He says he has been complaining to ministers for many years about skills shortages in engineering.
And universities minister Jo Johnson had challenged him to set up his own institution to train students.
Sir James says the UK needs another one million engineers with skills in software, hardware and electronics by 2020.

The technology institute will "tackle head-on the dearth of skilled engineers in the UK".
"We are taking matters into our own hands," said Sir James, who added that he wants the project to develop into a fully-fledged Dyson University, with its own degree-awarding powers.
Students will be paid a salary while studying and will not have to pay tuition fees - and Sir James says a key benefit will be that students will be working on "live projects" alongside mentors and research staff.

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Well done Sir James... our politicians are more interested in giving our money away to corrupt governments abroad, or to projects where the 'admin fees' eat up most of the contributions, & our major companies are more interested in profit margins than investment in our youth...'nuff said.

George.

Back in the day, the better of our engineering firms sponsored undergraduates to attend the existing universities as part of an engineering apprenticeship - remember those? They didn't set up rival institutions close to their offices to undermine the existing universities and make it harder for everyone else.

The cynic in me would suggest that if he was truly interested in the UK economy he'd be following suit.

Jon

The problem (I think) for him is that if you get too close to government institutions they can bugger it up

One change in "policy" can mean the entire ballgame going down the toilet (Thatcher for instance)

If you keep yourself at arms length from government policy morons then you increase your survivability chances in those bad times which undoubtedly arrive from time to time

Remember when every school had a BBC Micro and kids were taught to program?

Education policy was deliberately changed to stop that in favour of training children to use Office software. This was because it was 'too expensive' to retrain teachers, most of whom had no IT Skills or interest in learning any.

A golden opportunity was missed. No-one should be surprised it's now a problem that Britain "needs another one million engineers with skills in software, hardware and electronics by 2020". One might ask what current policy is doing to improve matters. I doubt the answer is Grammar Schools and banning immigration.

On a positive note British Universities are doing a good job producing high-end Engineers. These are the bright blokes with talent who can do the maths and innovate: the serious shortage seems to be in the next level down, the people needed to fill out the engineering details or write the software.

Dave

Maybe the tide is turning, Have heard about some schools in the USA adding some form of "shop". Maybe people in a position to matter are coming to their senses.

Yesterday I was in a meeting that included a couple of 'interns' who were making a good contribution. Apparently it's the modern jargon for sandwich students. I went because my graduate trainee who was down to go is on another week-long training course. So some industry is providing training in various forms. One of the factors not considered is that on the job training is a bit of a burden on the trainer - me - as in yesterday's case it meant 5 hours driving to attend.

Bravo Sir James!

Will you be moving your production back fully to the UK we'll be needing all the work and tax we can get by 2020. I did hear that Nike will need skilled workers to make training shoes for 60 hours a week paying top dollar (2/6) so best get those CV's and degree's polished up folks. Sorry for my acerbic humour at this but kind of think makes me sick.

MB2 +1!

Still, at least he will be using some of the profits he made by moving his production abroad to do some good here.

rgds

Bill

Prior to retirement from a career in engineering I served as chair of governors at a local primary school, I was very disappointed at the emphasis our politicians placed on the need for ever higher academic achievement. Schools were expected to ensure that pupils achieved "better" scores year on year, the only criteria that mattered was academic achievement. Some pupils really struggled academically but could excel at vocational subjects but this is deemed irrelevant by our politicians in our society today. How refreshing to see that James Dyson is taking a different view although perhaps some who would excel in his business empire will be excluded if they cannot attain the requisite A levels to qualify for entry to his "University". Our society needs to radically rethink its education and training provision, don't get me on the subject of the ludicrous provision of modern day "Apprenticeships".

Many were critical when companies like Nissan and Honda set up shop in the UK (after being courted by government ministers), thus nailing the coffin lid on our own domestic car production - the criticism being that the uk was being used as cheap labour with all the profits going back overseas to the parent companies.

Dyson has done the same process in reverse, keeping the top end jobs and the profits in the UK and using the production plant overseas to exploit cheaper labour and remain competitive. And people are critical.

Is it better to be a nation of designers and innovators, or a source of cheap labour for foreign companies?

My memory of Dyson is not a happy one. I quoted tooling and did make the odd mould for them, once up and running he decamped to Portugal for the mould making. Then further afield, had he stayed in the UK maybe we would still have a tool making industry. We where not that more expensive and better quality and back up. After trying his vacuum cleaners we soon got rid of the unreliable things and use a Henry.

For local reasons I am not a great fan of Dyson.

Fifty or so years ago quite a number of major firms such as de Havilland had their own colleges where they taught their apprentices to HND level. Others dominated the local techs in a similar manner. Is this what Dyson is talking about? The major worry must be that such a place will turn out clones. I would have thought that Dyson's company that exists on innovation needs engineers with fresh ideas from the outside world.

Everyone agrees that we need far more engineers. Also everyone agrees we need more doctors, nurses, teachers, prison warders, policemen and, perhaps soon, military. Where are they all going to come from given that there is a residue of the population who cannot or will not work because they are ill, severely handicapped, drunk, retired etc?

12 Bore is right in as much as a radical rethink is required in secondary education. Girls seem to be discouraged from doing physics and chemistry because "they are too hard". Personally I think the discouragement is due to cost considerations. These are expensive subjects to teach. Most of the women engineers I knew, some I still know, were educated at private schools.

Rant over, I should be in the workshop.

JA

My guess is that ~52% of the population would want the cheaper labour jobs here and ~48% would prefer the top end jobs here, where ever the workers came from

...but I'm not sure that's why I feel Mr Dyson only deserves one cheer.

Who will recognize the qualifications of these engineers when they try to get a job elsewhere? I suspect that's not important to Mr Dyson.

In the days of Whitworth and Armstrong when there was no real higher education for engineering students that would have been ok but not now.

Take a look at JCB's training facility, just how things where in the 50s/60s.

There are new schools being built that address the problem that we all identify here.

Two of my grand sons have transferred from an ordinary secondary school to http://www.utcsheffield.org.uk/curriculum/

The engineering facilities are fantastic both conventional and cnc, there is even one class room with a production line facility in it !

I have to say I felt a considerable amount of envy and pride for my grandkids.

My understanding is that there are more similar schools being built around the country. There is hope yet !!

There is mor information here

http://www.utcolleges.org/about/schools/

The problem with Dyson University is the courses look good and are really ingenious, but they only last six months...

I removed my comment.

Edited By V8Eng on 04/11/2016 18:59:27

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Edited By V8Eng on 04/11/2016 19:20:00