Engineering, Background Degree

Excellent engineers must be managers

Another aspect of the problem is lack of engineering education in managers of industrial areas

Is there a solution? Of course there is: engineering degree and mba

European top schools already have 30% of such students; in 1998 they amounted only 24%

Engineers also want to get MBA in order to fill a gap in their knowledge and experience gained earlier

There is now a strong case for engineers to study aspects of management, and perhaps even a Master of Business Administration course (MBA). But what relevance does an MBA have to the highly technical skills of a professional engineer, and is there a need for an MBA specifically for Engineers? The new matching section of the Chartered Engineer accreditation provides a requirement to mix the two subjects of management and engineering, and the MBA may provide the perfect opportunity to achieve this.

A postgraduate qualification is becoming more important for engineers in the future. The Engineering Council and the various Professional Bodies now require that to attain Chartered status (CEng), the graduate engineer must have studied to MEng level through an accredited degree route or alternatively studied a 'Matching Section' (equivalent to an MEng) through postgraduate study. One of the requirements of this 'matching section' is in the area of management. Graduate engineers must have studied management at postgraduate level in order to attain Chartered status.

One way of attaining this is through study on a Master of Business Administration course (MBA). About 25 percent of MBA students are engineers. Increasingly therefore it is expected that more graduate engineers will undertake this qualification in the future

It is important that engineers widen their knowledge and skills in the management area if they wish to become senior managers in manufacturing industry. Having already obtained a technical degree, an MBA completes their education in the wider areas of management that usually include subjects such as finance, marketing, human resource management, organisational behaviour, and management strategy. The engineer thus has the opportunity to quickly progress in their career usually through fast track promotion into very senior management posts.

This is also important because the role of the engineer is changing - within an industrial company, the engineer is likely to be the manager that has to implement new practices and new technology. Thus the engineer often becomes the primary manager of change within the modern organisation, which again requires specific skills and learning.