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At The Forefront of Aerospace Engineering...

There are a great number of areas to consider in the field of engineering. Those looking for a career in aeronautical engineering or automotive engineering are likely to be seeking work with challenge and innovation. According to Loughborough University, there are more than 600 companies in the aerospace industry in Britain alone, with a combined turnover in excess of 17 billion pounds. Well over a quarter of a million people work in the automotive industry, and the UK motorsport industry is acknowledged around the world.

Highly Regarded Training

There are approximately 32 UK Universities providing Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Engineering Degrees in Automotive or Aeronautical Engineering. Also more advanced PhD courses are offered on some campuses. (Shorter courses are available from local technical institutions as well.)

Undergraduates can take the opportunity to put the knowledge and experience they've gained in the first two years of their degree programme into practice by taking a one year industrial placement in year three.

Some universities will also offer a more formal split between training and working time.

Students on engineering courses can sometimes arrange sponsorship in exchange for a certain time working for the sponsor after graduating. Take time to look into the various university, college and sponsorship options. You have many exciting possibilities in front of you.

Engineering - Automotive

Auto engineering concerns all aspects of motor vehicles, from conception to assembly. As well as the traditional disciplines, automotive engineers now need to incorporate electronics, safety and software engineering into their skill-sets. There are many new technologies in the automotive arena, so a great deal to think about for the student who's just getting started.

Let's take a look at the engineering stages we go through in the production of a vehicle. The first stage involves the design or product engineers. They are the people who design and test the components and systems on a vehicle.

The development engineers' co-ordinate the engineering attributes of vehicles. These engineers often have to liaise with designers on certain specs. Last of all come the manufacturers, who determine how to put the vehicle together.

There are a great deal of product disciplines for the auto engineering student to take on board. In addition to gaining comprehensive knowledge of automotive engineering and design, students should also learn transferable skills on a graduate programme. Safety is a top priority, and so all elements of a design will be tested via crash simulations and test dummies etc.

As well as performing well by themselves, each component and system has to work in synergy with everything else. For that reason, students must understand something about systems engineering.

This area also covers trade-offs - such as learning how to achieve performance whilst maintaining fuel economy. Ultimately development engineering must meet the standards dictated by the manufacturer, the government and of course the buying public.

Once the designers and developers are absolutely satisfied that everything is ready, the manufacturing engineers take over. This is where it all comes together, and so every last detail has to be planned and engineered. This complex discipline is sometimes regarded as the most esteemed area of automotive engineering.

Aero Engineering

Our obsession with flight over the years has created this very diverse and exciting branch of engineering. If you are very analytical by nature and have a great capacity for highly technical and innovative thinking, you could do very well building a career for yourself in the aerospace industry. (That said, engineers working in Formula One use aerospace technology too!)

Flight vehicles are faced with huge stresses on take-off, flight and landing. Therefore aerospace engineering divides into very specialist areas, such as materials science and aerodynamics, which all come together to form the whole.

Training courses will go into depth on aircraft design and flight mechanics, and feature a strong emphasis on analysis. Analytics is essentially problem-solving, and deals with things like dynamics and fluid mechanics. Modern computing methods can now simulate the behaviour of fluid, which reduces the need for empirical testing in wind tunnels. 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. You can expect a group project that requires students to design a complete vehicle or aircraft, along with significant individual projects. Training courses in these engineering disciplines will also introduce students to other transferable skills. They could include things like communication skills and time management.

The aerospace industry provides excellent career development into a variety of technical and managerial roles. Graduates and Post-graduates can gain professional recognition as Incorporated Engineers or Chartered Engineers.