Abstract
THE technical education of engineers is a subject which has engaged public attention for a long time past and is one of great national importance. It is somewhat singular that this country, foremost as it has always been in matters of engineering enterprise, should be so behindhand in the systematic education of its engineers, there being no establishment in England devoted to that object which is recognised by the profession. Under the system that has been in vogue up to a comparatively recent period a youth intended for an engineer is taken from school at the age of sixteen being thereby deprived of the most valuable years of his education, and placed in some engineering manufactory, where he remains, perhaps, till he is twenty. In those four years his so-called “training” consists in going through the manual routine of the various workshops and “picking up” what knowledge he can by keeping his eyes open and living on good terms with the workmen. His last year is usually spent in the drawing-office, where, by a similar process of “picking up,” he learns how to draw if not to design machinery or works of construction. At the end of that time his education is supposed to be complete, and he either remains as a draughtsman until something better is offered him, or he enters the office of another engineer for the purpose of improvement. All this time the far more important theoretical training is neglected altogether, no classes or examinations are held, no lectures or other instructions are given, and though some few energetic young men in some way make up this loss by private study they are a great exception, and the hours of manual work are usually so heavy (from 6 A.M. till 5 P.M.) as to render working in the evening both fatiguing and unprofitable.
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C., C. Engineering Education in Japan . Nature 16, 44–45 (1877). https://doi.org/10.1038/016044b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/016044b0