• Question: Do you have to do really well at GCSES to become an engineer?

    Asked by megallan to Alex, Claire, Kate, Marcus, Neil on 19 Jun 2014.
    • Photo: Marcus Johns

      Marcus Johns answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      You don’t have to do really well, but it generally helps if you want to go down the ‘traditional’ route to becoming an engineer. You have to have good GCSE results in order to do your A levels and get good results there in order to go to university to study engineering.

      However, it is possible to go down the route of an apprenticeship and become an engineer that way. I had a friend at secondary school who joined an apprenticeship scheme after he did his GCSEs and now is a qualified engineer designing seats capable of withstanding crashes for helicopters, thus improving the chances of people surviving a crash.

      http://www.apprenticeships.org.uk/types-of-apprenticeships/engineering-and-manufacturing-technologies.aspx is a good website to check out if you think an apprenticeship would be better for you.

    • Photo: Alex Lyness

      Alex Lyness answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      Hey megallan,

      All types of people can become engineers. The 5 of us on this website in the Health Zone all happen to have taken a fairly academic route through to be doing/have done a PhD. But do not fear… there are many other ways of being an engineer check out the Apprentice Zone profiles for how those guys became engineers: /apprenticej14-zone/engineers

      The most important GCSEs are passes in Maths, Science and English as these will help you to do calculate things, understand stuff and then write up what you found out.

      Good luck in your exams. 🙂

    • Photo: Claire Brockett

      Claire Brockett answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      hi megallan,

      I don’t think you have to do *really* well at your GCSEs, but good grades in Sciences, Maths and English will help you. Are you doing your GCSEs at the moment?

      Although in the health zone we’ve all followed an academic path (A-levels or equivalent, degree, PhD) as Alex and Marcus have said – there are other routes such as apprenticeships, which you can start after GCSEs – you get to learn the skills whilst doing the job, and I’ve got a couple of friends who did this kind of training and it suited them very well. This isn’t any easier than the academic route – just the style of learning whilst you work can really suit some people better. Try the links they’ve suggested and also https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/Pages/Home.aspx

      Also, it’s worth me saying, I did well at my GCSEs, but not so great at my A-levels – but I’ve still gone on to get a really good degree and PhD 🙂 Persistence and hard work are important too!

      Good luck.

Comments

  • Photo: Marcus

    Marcus commented on :

    Weirdly, some international companies have openly admitted that they don’t always want the most academically bright students for graduate jobs as engineers. This is because they think that under the current exam system, a student that can answer exam questions well won’t necessarily be able to respond well if a problem that they haven’t come across before occurs, but a student who has had to work hard to get their degree will be able to. Obviously this isn’t true in all cases and you should always try your best no matter what you decide to do.