Question: HOW DOES YOUR LOVE IN DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY HELP IN YOUR WORK???????NAOMI

Naomi Green answered on 19 Mar 2015:

Hi Olivia 🙂

I really enjoyed that last live chat. Some excellent questions from you and your classmates 🙂

As you say when I was at school I loved DT. I think it because the closest subject in the school curriculum to engineering. Sure you need to know your maths and physics to be an engineer and you don’t have to have done DT to study mechanical engineering at uni but I think it is a really valuable 3rd A Level. In DT you use your knowledge of maths, physics and technology to design something which will solve a problem and then you manufacture it and test it to make sure it does solve the problem. Well that process matches the engineering process. In DT you learn skills that apply to engineering that you don’t learn in other subjects like sketching, CAD, using tools, how to design, how to write a performance specification, lot of things!

I was really lucky where I went to school that we had an amazing DT centre with lots of equipment and I had a DT teacher who was really inspirational. He got me involved in the Young Engineer for Great Britain Competition which was great experience and good for my self confidence. There is now the National Science and Engineering competition too. If you are interested in being an engineer or love DT too then you should have a look at them and talk to your teacher about entering. They improve your skills and look great on your CV for job and university applications.

I’m really glad I did DT because I think it taught me skills I use now as an engineer at an early age which I wouldn’t have learnt if I ‘d done further maths or a second science at A Level.

Are you a DT fan too? I hope that helps if you are! 🙂