Does our ‘throw-away culture’ include Graduate Engineers?

The best that most of us in small to medium sized companies can hope for when hiring a graduate mechanical or design engineer, is someone who has had a summer job changing tyres or a placement year where they have done a bit more than sweeping the floor or running errands.

To expect graduate engineers to understand the practical application of systems such as design for manufacturing is wishful thinking. Most companies I have worked in don’t have structured graduate development schemes. Graduates are expected to jump in at the deep end and learn to swim . . . or sink . . . and in many companies they actually plan for a lot of graduates to sink. It is just expected that a large proportion of graduates won’t make it past the first year.

There is a better way! This video highlights the problems and some very straightforward solutions that can save a lot of time and develop a very productive engineering team.