Is there a missing link within the engineering industry of Australia?

[ottg]

Since my arrival more than 10 years ago I noticed that something was missing within the professional engineering industry of Australia. I just couldn't define it or put my finger on it. However the symptoms were:

• Why is it that the reputation of engineers was not well sought after?
• Why is it that 60% of qualified engineers are in non-engineering positions?
• Why during an economic downturn with many engineers looking for employment the market says there is a shortage of skilled engineers?

In my journey to get a better understanding I realized it was somehow related to the lack of systems engineering and engineering project management skills. Perhaps also the lack of a strong interrelationship and interface between engineering, ICT and business. I stumbled across a recent research finding from Prof James Trevelyan from UWA where he researched similar problems for the past 14 years and now has released a book “The Making of an Expert Engineer”. He mentioned 84 engineering practices that is required to be an expert engineer and mostly non-technical of nature. What I found is that many of those socio-technical practices are also present and advanced in the Enterprise Architecture discipline.

The challenge then arise for new emigrants:

• How do you sell yourself in an engineering industry where critical elements of systems engineering and engineering project management may have not been addressed or worse not recognised or been aware off? Where the recruitment agents and some decision makers don’t know what they don’t know?

I believe that many expat South African engineers do have those skills as engineering project management is part of the curriculum and some unis do have industrial and systems engineering programs.

What Trevelyan suggests is what the prospective employer would like to see:

• You required the confidence that you can overcome any challenge presented and can do it well etc
• While the effort to overcome the challenge will not be effortless it will seems like it to others

Unfortunately too long to publish but I summarized it here: My challenge in finding the missing link within engineering industry of Australia.pdf (note these are my own personal view)

[monsta]

Good luck, we have a systems engineer at work. He manages the IT infrastructure. They didn't even look up his job title on wikipedia before giving it to him!

For the non engineers here.. A Systems Engineer makes sure that engineering processes are being followed. The most important part is making sure that what the engineering team builds is actually going to work and meet the requirements. E.g. they don't design an exhaust that won't fit the car body the other team designed. So a systems engineer doesn't manage IT systems..

I worked as a systems engineer in RSA. Work even sent me on a postgraduate course on the subject. But I had to drop that title from my CV as recruiters in Aussie thought I worked in the IT department.

Maybe if Aussie actually hires a few more Systems Engineers, the Sydney Rapid Transit will actually be finished in 2020

Edited May 10, 2015 by monsta

[ottg]

@monsta - spot on. Thx for your reply! Major problem here when you speak about a systems engineer most think it's IT infrastructure & networks. However little do engineering companies know how System Engineers are capable of resolving the product/structure design & integration issues. Even Eng Aus see that as a method and not a discipline. So the key is to describe the outcome/benefits and not the role.

The good news is that the Defense Industry is using Systems Engineers extensively.

My challenge is slightly different; bringing Ent Architecture & Systems Eng together in a science/engineering environment. From there my real interest - the above is just a spin-off.