Helping engineers reach the top of corporate ladder

On course

Even engineers with on-the-job management experience can find it difficult to rise to boardroom level, unless they have an MBA to prove that they have grasped the tenets of modern business practice. The trouble is that financing a year off work studying for an MBA is a significant cash drain, requiring substantial savings or a second mortgage.

But it is not all gloom; in 1987, David (now Lord) Sainsbury initiated the Sainsbury Management Fellowship Scheme to develop people with engineering expertise into corporate leaders.

The scheme, which is administered by the Royal Academy of Engineering, selects 10 to 14 engineers each year who have relevant academic qualifications and leadership potential. The chosen candidates are offered the opportunity to study for an MBA at one of the world's leading business schools, outside the UK.

Lord Sainsbury says: "I was concerned that British industry was being outperformed by other developed countries. This, I believe, could be attributed in part to a lack of technological knowledge at the top of major UK manufacturing and engineering companies.

"There were more senior executives with engineering qualifications at the top of industrial organisations in, for example, Germany and Japan. It was clear that more engineers needed to be given the opportunity to move into senior managerial positions, and an MBA is the best way to acquire the necessary business skills."

To be eligible for the scheme, you must be a UK citizen aged between 26 and 34 with the potential and ambition to achieve senior management responsibility. You must also have Chartered Engineering status or be making substantial progress towards it. The award of a Sainsbury Management Fellowship depends on candidates securing a place at their chosen business school using the school's normal application procedure.

Since 1987, the scheme has supported more than 140 engineers who form the Sainsbury Management Fellow's Society, a network of like-minded executives. That includes Simon Hughes, who graduated from MIT in June 2000 and now works for Microsoft in Seattle. Mike Astell, who picked up his MBA from Erasmus in 1999, is now a corporate strategist at Royal Dutch/Shell, working for the board and group companies.

Patrick Macdonald, who fancied studying at Insead, graduating in 1992, is now vice president sourcing at GE Capital in Stamford, Connecticut. He is responsible for GE Capital's purchase base of more than $10bn and its property portfolio.

Chris Shelly, the marketing director of Blue Circle and current secretary of the Sainsbury Management Fellow's Society says: "With the emergence of e-commerce, we are seeing a fundamental shift towards corporates leaning to executives with an engineering background."

For more information about the Sainsbury Management Fellowship Scheme or to get an application form, contact Cathleen Breeze on 020-8941-8584 or email cathy.breeze@smf.org.uk

Elsewhere, for those planning to embark on postgraduate study in the US, the Fulbright Awards can help with the fees. The traditional Fulbright Awards have no subject restriction but in recent years they have tended to focus on subjects or topics associated with the present and the future rather than the past. Secondly there are the foundation's co-sponsored awards which are mostly subject specific. They may include an opportunity for an internship with a sponsoring company and may lead to an offer of employ-ment at the end of the course.

The awards cover round trip travel and a mainten-ance grant for one year of postgraduate study or research at a university in the US.

Fulbright usually receives more than 300 applications for its 30 annual awards.

To apply, you must be a UK citizen, normally resident in this country and you must hold, or expect to have, a minimum 2:1 undergraduate degree from a UK university. You must also be able to demonstrate evidence of leadership qualities or very active involvement in extra-curricular activities.

For further details on how to apply, contact the British Programme Administrator, US-UK Fulbright Commission, Fulbright House, 62 Doughty Street London WC1N 2LS. Tel: 0207-404-6880 (awards) 0207-404-6994 (Educational Advisory Service).

To find out about study in the US, try your university careers service or the Educational Advisory Service (EAS) and Fulbright Technology Centre (FTC) at Fulbright House, where there is an extensive range of university prospectuses, educational guides, information on GMAT and other tests, as well as access to professional advice. The FTC offers computer-based search packages, test preparation software and internet access.

For managers with a strong interest in the hospitality/tourism industries, the Browns Restaurant Scholarships provide funds for UK citizens to study for an MBA at the Judge Institute of Management Studies - Cambridge University's management and business school.

Candidates should be UK nationals with three years' work experience within the hospitality or tourism industries. They must produce a career plan showing how they would use the skills and knowledge gained on the MBA course to develop their career within the industry.

For an application pack, write to the Judge Institute of Management Studies, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1AG.

In a separate move, publishing house Hobsons has joined forces with the Association of MBAs to offer a scholarship worth £10,000. For details of how to apply, write to Hobsons/The Association of MBAs Scholarship, The Association of MBAs, 15 Duncan Terrace, London N1 8BZ or send an email to scholarship@mba.org.uk.