Originally Posted by
olnico
Another, more concerning, side of that story.
I am in constant look for young Aerospace Engineers and Technicians.
I do not find any technicians in this part of the World. Fair enough, I can train them from scratch.
But not engineers.
The engineers that are made available to me are IT geeks. They have no practical sense of manufacture and very little engineering taste. Typically, they are lightning fast when it comes to designing a part on CAD, but this part is almost impossible to produce! I would have to put them on the production line for years to be able to get them to create something that can be manufactured. But they don't want to get anywhere near the shop floor. And anyway, the trigger point starts at the age of 13, when one makes and flies the first plane with Dad. I cannot substitute this for any training...
The Western World Aerospace Industry is getting a huge hit as the old school engineers are retiring.
I am an IT person myself and my son wants to be the engineer. He said that he wanted to learn how to fix cars and motorcycles and I said to him that it's important that you be able to design parts so please learn how to use programs to design parts. Well he quickly replied, "Well dad how can I design a part if I don't understand how it works in the overall system or understand how it will improve the operation of the system." I had nothing to say to the logic. So I am glad I read what you wrote it kind of reinforces his choice. BTW he is actually a pretty good CAD designer and motorcycle mechanic.