Image. It's a word we hear a lot these days. Even politicians started polishing up their act years ago with the birth of New Labour. Now just about everyone in the public eye has an image consultant – charged with the task of ensuring that their client is never without an ironed shirt, matching tie and roll-off-the-tongue soundbite.
So image has rather a mixed...image. It can imply a false front put on to fool the world. Engineers, being realists who deal entirely with fact, are probably more averse to the idea of brushing up the image of their industry than most. Engineers even jest among themselves that they're seen as a slightly geeky, inarticulate bunch. However, it's getting less amusing now we're faced with a real shortage of graduates.

This month BSJ spoke to a cross section of recently qualified graduate trainees. If you take a look at our feature you'll find that they are all pleasantly articulate, ambitious and determined. A great advert for engineers.

Yet while all of them have chosen building services as a career, they all agree that the sector needs to boost its profile in universities. "I didn't even know what a building services engineer does," says one. Why is that? We all know what accountants do (or at least we think we have a good idea), or what goes on in IT companies. The fact is that these sectors have somehow built up a much better image of themselves than engineering has.

Some might think that image is about sending out false messages; trying to convince potential employees that engineering is glamorous, highly paid and high profile. It's not. Nor is it about giving the rest of the world the idea that it's boring, dull and inconsequential – which we seem to have managed to achieve without really trying.

We need to put things right. Building services engineering does have a lot of positive things to say for itself. One of the most significant aspects our young interviewees pointed out was that services engineering is about the environment – helping to save it and to make comfortable conditions for people to live and work in. The other is that engineering is creative – not simply theory on paper, but making buildings that last and bring pleasure to many people. How many industries can say this sort of thing?

There is no need to 'create' an image for services engineering – the good things are already there. It's simply a case of of accentuating the positive.

Source

Building Sustainable Design

Postscript

Karen Fletcher, Editor