Teaching company scheme: a unique style of postgraduate activity with industry

The teaching company scheme is a style of activity developed over the last eight years in the UK. It is financially supported by the UK Science and Engineering Research Council, the Department of Trade & Industry and, increasingly, by industry. It has multiple objectives which are beneficial, both in the long term and the short term, to industry, to academic institutions and in providing postgraduate training and experience to develop a cadre of high-quality engineering managers. The scheme involves setting up partnerships between academy and industrial units, large or small, to work principally in industry. It currently operates largely in engineering manufacture but is demonstrably applicable to other areas. The overall structure of the scheme is described briefly in Section 2, whilst in Section 3 a description is given of a particular programme in the electrical/electronics industrial sector.