The public appears to have a higher regard for of engineers than the engineers have of themselves, according to a survey published yesterday.
Women tend to have a higher regard for them than men, but those surveyed as a whole were more reluctant to recommend their daughter for an engineering career than their son.
However, people think engineering is for others: 76 per cent would recommend it for young males, but only 47 per cent for their sons and 46 per cent would recommend it for a young female but only 33 per cent for their own daughter.
And few people seem to know what engineers do. Those surveyed either listed the mundane things like building bridges, roads, freeways and construction in general or thought they were mechanics or train drivers.
Design, electronic, electrical and managing engineers hardly got a guernsey.
The survey was done by Frank Small and Associates for the Institution of Engineers in the five mainland state capitals. The sample was 1304 and interviews done face-to-face.
The survey was done because members of the Institution thought engineers had low status and this reflected in low salaries compared to other salaries and a less recognised role in senior management.
They also thought the stereotype of an engineer was a non-creative mechanic and this hindered the choice of engineering as a career.
The survey proved their fears unfounded.
Engineers (7.22 out of 10) are believed to contribute more to Australia’s standard of living than dentists (6.84), Vets (6.51), Accountants (6.29) and Lawyers (5.91), but lower than scientists (8.06) medical specialists (7.90) and GPs (7.61).
Engineers (7.32 out of 10) are held in higher esteem than accountants (6.60) and lawyers (6.57), but lower than scientists (8.01) medical specialists (8.28) and GPs (8.02).dentists (7.45), Vets (7.31)
Only one in 10 think Australia has too many engineers. And 82 per cent thought engineers adopted ethical behaviour.
However, three in ten had difficulty distinguishing an engineer from a tradesperson and one in three thought they often do they same jobs.
Very few (13 per cent) had considered an engineering career. Younger respondents were more likely to have. (Perhaps they can remember their career choices more clearly.) People from non-English-speaking backgrounds (23 per cent) were more likely to have than others (12 per cent). (The low response might tell more about educational standards in mathematics and science than about the esteem of the job.)
The survey found “”a tendency for younger people to have a more positive view of engineers as creative, modern and involved in new technology; while older people retain images of engineers as conservative and involved in working of machines and construction projects”.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics issues figures earlier this year which put engineering gross earnings well up the list. Mining engineers (on $1059 per week) were only pipped by GPs ($1095) and specialists ($1079). Chemical engineers ($990) and marine engineers ($806) beat dentists ($797) and lawyers ($777).
In the engineering survey, only 33 per cent thought engineers made good managers or business people.
The director of public affairs of the institution, Dr Michael Dack, who is not an engineer, said engineers made as good mangers as those from other professions.
He thought engineers were concerned about their occupational status and that their essential work was not recognised because they had been muscled out of top managing roles in the 1980s by economists, accountants and lawyers.
However, engineers had always made good managers. A 1986 survey showed that about a quarter of public service heads were engineers as were nearly a half of the heads of the top 50 companies.
They were good managers because their courses and work required them to look at the context in which they worked: economics, politics, people management and the environment.