ABSTRACT
This chapter puts the focus on the building of the repertoire of knowledge and skills and their use in the unfolding careers of engineers and scientists. Earlier chapters have provided relevant comparative discussions of the output of engineers and scientists from the Japanese education system (Chapter 2) and outputs from the company training systems (Chapter 3). Chapter 2 demonstrated how some British industrialists became animated when reading accounts of the Japanese higher educational system and its numbers of engineering graduates. They went on to ask how they could be expected to compete with Japanese industrialists until the British higher educational system began to deliver comparable numbers of engineers to support them. However, their preoccupation with numbers of engineers was not only simplistic, but it neglected the chicken-and-egg character of education-employment relations where expectations and experiences of education are very strongly influenced by the nature of the employment system itself. My aim in this chapter is to take the discussion forward with a focus on engineers and scientists working in R&D. Chapter 4 provided the background debate on respective ‘national innovation systems’ and their alleged strengths and weaknesses, especially the concern in Japan that the institutional frameworks outlined in Chapters 2 and 3 might not serve future knowledge and skill needs for innovation at the technological frontiers. In addition, Chapter 4 introduced ‘The International Survey of R&D Workers’ and the data set which gives an opportunity to draw on the views of engineers and scientists themselves about education, training and employment experiences. The central focus of the chapter lies in examining the impact of different employment systems on the kinds of knowledge and skills learned, on the manner in which they are learned, on the ways in which careers are developed, and on graduate employee perceptions of areas of university and company education and training in need of improvement.
