Panel discussion

PR N. M. L. BARNES, Martin Barnes Project Management I am an enthusiast for including management subjects in undergraduate engineering courses. I have two main reasons for this. The first is that I do not believe that 'managers are born not made'. Achievement in management is a combination of aptitude, training, and experience. Success in management will not be achieved without all these three components being present. In this respect the engineer who becomes a specialist in management is not different from the engineer who becomes a specialist in soil mechanics or structural design. If there is a difference, it is that most practising civil engineers only use a small proportion of the technical subjects which they learnt in their undergraduate courses. Almost all practising engineers are in a position to benefit from management training. It follows that, in terms of value in later life, management should be near the top of the list for inclusion in undergraduate engineering courses.