In a letter to the CIBSE Journal the impact of losing engineers in a recession to other industries was raised.  This reminds me of the other long UK recession in the late eighties and early nineties that saw many engineers more to other sectors.  However, it was easier to move to other sectors two decades ago as whilst the construction industry was badly affected many other sectors thrived.  Today the conditions are different as most sectors are seriously impacted by the recession.

So the construction industry is losing engineers that are key to ensuring that buildings will be more sustainable.  How will they be replaced, particularly as progressively more demanding regulations will require better engineers to meet the technical challenges that lie ahead in the forthcoming decades?

This problem is compounded by the fact that one of the biggest problems experienced throughout the world is that school leavers tend to want the fast route to the perceived big incomes in other sectors e.g. Marketing or Business Administration.  As mentioned in the letter by Ken McDougall in the CIBSE Journal many UK University building services courses have closed in recent years due to lack of interest.

Some however thrive such as the course at the Dublin Institute of Technology.  I meet with so many DIT’ers who are dispersed throughout the world and IES employ about ten of them.  One of the reasons this course is so successful is the passion of one of the lecturers, Ken Beattie.  Ken has passed his passion on to so many people that are making a significant contribution to engineering community throughout the world.  The industry and good sustainable design need more Ken’s.