The Nature of the Work for the Fire and Explosion Forensic Investigator
They are offering you a rare opportunity to enter a unique and very rewarding profession in which the variety and the nature of the technically focused work is extremely diverse and challenging, thus providing you with what we consider is unrivalled job satisfaction. A key attraction of this role is that you will typically have the opportunity to be responsible for seeing a technical investigation through from beginning to end from initially collecting the evidence on site to preparing the final technical report and ultimately giving expert evidence in Court.

You will have the opportunity to investigate a wide range of fires and explosions involving ultimately super tankers and commercial airliners but initially more probably house, office and appliance fires. The entirely unpredictable nature and location of the work are key attractions of this role.

The work will often require you to examine failed components and other physical evidence in a laboratory environment. There is a practical element to the job in that occasionally you will be required to carefully dismantle machinery, equipment or component assemblies in a systematic manner to obtain the evidence that you require to determine the cause of the fire or explosion. This practical aspect of the work also extends to the requirement to devise and possibly undertake tests, possibly with outside agencies or contractors, as and when the need arises.

The role of a Fire and Explosion Forensic Investigator

• Conducting site-based investigations to record and gather the available physical evidence.
• Liaising with Police, Fire Brigade, Health and Safety Executive personnel, who may be in control of the site.
• Obtaining details regarding the background and circumstances surrounding the incident by interviewing individuals associated with the incident.
• Undertaking telephone and Internet enquiries, possibly in liaison with our team of in-house librarians.
• Reviewing technical documentation that may include manuals and maintenance records.
• Consulting relevant standards, regulations and other published guidance.
• Undertaking technical literature reviews.
• Providing the client with timely preliminary verbal and/or written advice in a form that can be readily understood by a layperson and ultimately a Judge.
• Conducting detailed laboratory-based examinations.
• Devising and conducting tests.
• Preparing reports that may be in the form of a brief letter style report or in the form of a detailed, illustrated report for Court proceedings.
• Meetings with experts appointed by the other involved parties as part of the litigation process.
• Providing expert witness evidence in Court, which will involve being questioned in depth by a Barrister, who will have been briefed by a technical expert.

Here few examples of the types of investigation undertaken

• Explosion of a tanker whilst undergoing work in dry-dock.
• Fire in a commercial airliner during cleaning.
• Fire that caused the almost total destruction of a superstore.
• Deliberate fire involving fatalities in a hotel.
• Explosion in a house following a gas leak.
• Deliberate fire in a commercial premise to defraud the insurance company.
• Fire involving white goods; washing machines, tumble dryers, dishwashers etc.

Their Requirements for a Fire and Explosion Forensic Investigator
The fire and explosion investigator position are technically demanding, challenging and most rewarding role requiring not only a thorough understanding of basic chemistry and physics but also the ability to tackle problems from first principles.

Ideally you will:

• Have attained a good honours degree in a science or engineering discipline.
• Have gained several years of postgraduate experience.
• Have an aptitude and enthusiasm for problem solving.
• Be self-motivated and be able to work effectively under pressure.
• Be practical, meticulous and able to work in a systematic manner.
• Have common sense and be able to analyse information critically.
• Have the ability to communicate technical concepts clearly, both verbally and in writing, to others less informed.
• Be prepared to be flexible and work unpredictable hours, as and where the work demands, including occasionally overseas.
• Be prepared to provide expert witness evidence in Court when required.

Package

• highly competitive starting salary
• unparalleled prospects.
• five weeks holiday
• a contributory pension scheme
• medical insurance
• life assurance
• permanent health insurance
• company car.
• Where appropriate a relocation package is available
• London Office appointment have London weighting

Send your CV & Details to – CV@charlesfranciscooper.co.uk  (please state in the Subject line what role you wish to apply for)

Charles Francis Cooper celebrates and supports diversity and is committed to ensuring equal opportunities for both employees and applicants.

(Charles Francis Cooper are acting as an employment agency)

Keywords

Fire, Explosion, Engineer, Engineering, failure investigation, Forensic investigation,

The post Fire and Explosion Forensic Investigators appeared first on Charles Francis Cooper.

They presently have vacancies for Mechanical Engineers to undertake forensic investigation of a wide range of engineering related incidents and accidents including those involving personal injury and health and safety aspects.

These investigations will usually be undertaken for insurance related purposes. Their clients include international insurers, loss adjusters, solicitors, marine Protection and Indemnity clubs, insurance brokers and industrial corporations. Their clients require prompt and accurate technical advice, sometimes at very short notice, regarding the cause of the incident or accident and assistance with determining liability.

The Nature of the Work for a Forensic Mechanical Engineer
If you are looking for a routine laboratory or an office-based position, then this is definitely not the job for you. They are offering you a rare opportunity to enter a unique and very rewarding profession in which the variety and the nature of the technically focused work is extremely diverse and challenging, thus providing you with what they consider is unrivalled job satisfaction.

A key attraction of this role is that you will typically have the opportunity to be responsible for seeing the technical investigation through from beginning to end, from initially collecting the evidence on site to preparing the final technical report and ultimately giving expert evidence in Court.

You will have the opportunity to investigate a broad range of engineering related incidents and accidents. This will encompass the investigation of engineering failures, ranging from the separation of plumbing connections to the collapse of large engineering structures. The investigation of personal injury accidents will often require both engineering expertise and a detailed knowledge of health and safety regulations and guidelines. The entirely unpredictable nature and location of the work are key attractions of the roles.

Your work will often require you to visit the location of an incident, sometimes at short notice, to record and gather evidence and to examine and analyse engineering components and other physical evidence in a laboratory environment.

There is also a practical element to the job in that on occasion you will be required to carefully dismantle machinery, equipment or component assemblies in a systematic manner to obtain the evidence that you require to determine the cause of the failure. This practical aspect of the work also extends to the requirement to devise and undertake ad hoc mechanical tests, as and when the need arises.

The list below provides an overview of the various aspects of the job for a Forensic Mechanical Engineer

• Conducting site-based investigations to record and gather the available physical evidence.
• Obtaining details regarding the background and circumstances surrounding the incident by interviewing people associated with the incident.
• Undertaking telephone enquiries of equipment suppliers and manufacturers to obtain the required technical information.
• Reviewing technical documentation that may comprise engineering drawings, operating manuals and maintenance records.
• Providing the client with timely preliminary verbal and/or written advice in a form that can be readily understood by a layperson and ultimately a Judge.
• Conducting detailed visual and low magnification examinations of failed components, equipment or machinery.
• Mechanical testing of components, equipment or machinery.
• Devising and conducting ad hoc testing of components, equipment or machinery.
• Preparing reports that may be in the form of a brief letter style report or in the form of a detailed, illustrated report for Court proceedings.
• Providing expert witness evidence in Court, which may involve being questioned in depth by a Barrister.

Here few examples of the types of investigation undertaken

• The collapse of a large, newly constructed cement storage silo
• A collision between two forklift trucks sustaining fatal injuries.
• A mobile crane accident resulting in injury to the operator and serious damage to both the crane and a nearby building.
• An industrial accident in which a machine operator sustained a serious hand injury due to inadequate guarding.
• A fatal accident resulting from the detachment of a section of the boom of a vehicle- mounted hydraulic access platform.

Requirements for the Forensic Mechanical Engineer
The Mechanical Engineer position is a technically demanding and challenging role requiring a thorough understanding of mechanical engineering principles and their application.

Requirements

• Have attained a good honours degree in mechanical engineering.
• Have gained several years of postgraduate experience, preferably in an industrial engineering environment.
• Have an aptitude and enthusiasm for problem solving.
• Be self-motivated and be able to work effectively under pressure.
• Have experience of undertaking engineering type investigations and be familiar with health and safety regulations and guidance relating to the workplace.
• Have a practical engineering ability in addition to a strong academic record.
• Have the ability to communicate technical concepts clearly, both verbally and in writing, to others less informed than yourself.
• Be prepared to work unpredictable hours, as and where the work demands.
• Be prepared to provide expert witness evidence in Court when required.
• Training and Prospects

Package

• highly competitive starting salary
• unparalleled prospects.
• five weeks holiday
• a contributory pension scheme
• medical insurance
• life assurance
• permanent health insurance
• company car.
• Where appropriate a relocation package is available
• London Office appointment have London weighting

Send your CV & Details to – CV@charlesfranciscooper.co.uk  (please state in the Subject line “Mechanical Engineer – Failure investigation Application”)

Charles Francis Cooper celebrates and supports diversity and is committed to ensuring equal opportunities for both employees and applicants.

(Charles Francis Cooper are acting as an employment agency)

Keywords

Engineer, Engineering, failure investigation, expert witness, Forensic investigation, Mechanical, health and safety, H&S, industrial engineering, industrial engineer, MSc,  Meng, PhD, Chartered, CEng, IMechE

The post Mechanical Engineer – Failure investigation appeared first on Charles Francis Cooper.

Future projections show that if this loophole is not sealed by the year 2025, there will be a gap of about 1.8 million E&M engineers. Judging by the fact that the UK relies heavily on E&M as an economic pillar, such a shortage would spell doom. On average, the UK engineering sector contributes over a quarter of the GDP.

There are many forms of engineering in the UK – electrical, chemical, mechanical, civil, biological and software to name a very small number. If you stop reading this and look around, everything you see, and I do mean EVERTHING, was devised by some type of engineer, now isn’t that mind blowing?

They contribute approximately 1.2 trillion pounds of the UK turnover, this is about 27 percent of the GDP. In addition, engineering accounts for about half of the country’s exports and over 3.6 million jobs. In 2016 alone, more than 130 engineering firms featured in the London Stock Exchange’s 1,000 companies to inspire report. Concisely, Engineering & Manufacturing fits the title of “backbone of the British economy.”

This unfortunate occurrence is being blamed on the lack of preparedness in the education sector. According to Ann Watson, the head of SEMA, which is an employer-led skills non-profit organization, children should be introduced to engineering while in elementary school. This can be done by promoting Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects in their early stages. The problem, she adds, is that by the time they get introduced to the basics of engineering, their interest is already lost, or they have made up their minds regarding their careers.

Normally, the government curriculum introduces engineering concepts to students when they are between 16 and 18 years of age. This appears to be too late. The result is lack of encouragement and exposure to children who would have otherwise chosen to take up studies that favour engineering. Watson suggests that this process should be started earlier, such as when the students are still in primary school. If they have the concepts in advance, they are more likely to develop interest and eventually end up taking engineering courses.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, together with Tata, also blamed the education system for the shortage. In their findings, the two firms warned that the policy of the government to encourage industrial growth in the UK is likely to fail. This is because the education system is not producing enough professionals with the required skills. They further warned that if proper reforms are not urgently instituted, the shortage will rapidly intensify.

Brexit is bound to catalyse the shortage if it comes to pass (Nov 17th 2018 is when I wrote this). In the past, the shortage of engineers in the UK has been cushioned by importing the necessary manpower from the wider EU. However, with the country set to chart its course outside the EU umbrella, it needs major reforms if economic prosperity must be observed post-Brexit. This historical separation means the UK will withdraw from the European Single Market. As such, it will require home-grown engineers. Again, the area of free movement will be cut off. There is the threat of the country having to struggle severely in finding the required talent. In a nutshell, if the 2025 benchmark is anything to go by, it means the UK needs to find a way of training the 1.8 million technicians in under 7 years. Therefore, the 69,000 per year shortfall must be addressed by the end of 2018.

While most of the blame is thrown towards the education system, gender also plays a key role in the UK engineering shortage. The Engineering UK 2017 report shows that women are still reluctant to join the engineering sector. As at 2017, women held less than 13 percent of engineering jobs in the UK. They termed the results as “heart-breaking and underwhelming.” More effort needs to be implemented in dealing with stereotypes which may discourage women from partaking in STEM courses while largely encouraging their male counterparts.

For instance, if one happens to do a Google Image search for the word “Engineer”, the results will mostly feature tens of men clad in hard hats. The females will only dot a corner or two. In as much as Google cannot be perceived as a satiable research resource, it clearly announces the plight of women in the engineering field not only in the UK but worldwide. Still, schools, are the best [and obvious] places where the efforts to reverse such misconceptions should start. This will be done by restructuring the curriculums, career information, the way courses are chosen and how subjects are taught.

The other contributing issue to the shortage is seemingly the reputation of UK engineering. While the UK engineering universities are popular across the world, they mostly attract foreign students. Out of the total engineering graduates who join the labour market every year, only a staggering 25 percent are awarded postgraduate degrees in technology and engineering. From these statistics, it is evident that the reputation of engineering is poor amongst UK students. This is despite revelations that the number of engineering and technology degrees awarded from 2015 is higher compared to previous years.

UK students appear to rank engineering too low despite its attractive employment prospects and rewards. On average, a graduate engineer’s starting salary would be 26,000 pounds compared to other subjects’ 22,000. The poor reputation might, again, be as a result of misconceptions. For example, apprenticeship programs which are almost necessary in most engineering courses are viewed as “second-hand” education by most young people. Similarly, the increase in automation might be misunderstood for risking jobs as Artificial Intelligence takes over most low-skill opportunities.

This sector needs to change if a skills crisis has to be averted. If the target of 1.8 million engineers by 2025 remains, proper and urgent restructuring of the entire industry, down from the education at primary school is necessary. Efforts to attract more young people to take STEM subjects should be enhanced. Gender diversity should also be fostered because this is one area that could supply the much-needed numbers. If these changes are not made, with Brexit looming nearer and the existing workforce getting older, the precious skill will get scarcer and scarcer – and that is the last thing that any country needs!

Sources

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/stem-awards/energy/the-great-uk-engineering-shortage/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/03/04/uk-firms-engineers-banks-struggle-fill-skills-shortage/

https://www.director.co.uk/uk-engineering-sector-faces-skills-shortage-22341-2/

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/engineering-skills-shortage-overcoming-the-fear-and-uncertainty/

https://edtechnology.co.uk/Article/uk-economy-and-productivity-threatened-by-lack-of-engineers

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/stem-skills-and-space-industry

The post The UK STEM Skills Shortage appeared first on Charles Francis Cooper.