When MG Rover factory in Birmingham closed last year, it was seen as a great loss by many. Airbus saw it as an opportunity. it put in place plans to open a Midland Engineering Centre, with funding of £30 million for five years.

The move looks set to strengthen Airbus's uk manufacturing base and has been endorsed by industry and the government.

Airbus wanted to capitalise on the skills in the Birmingham area and its engineering centre was opened by industry minister Margaret Hodge on 7 september. on opening, it already employed 37 engineers, with the expectation of 50 by the end of this year, 100 by the end of 2007 and by 2008.

Hodge said "we have the ingredients in place to ensure a continuous strong manufacturing industry in place to ensure a continuous strong manufacturing industry in the uk. I hope that the five-year contract is so successful it will be extended beyond that"

Iain Gray, managing director of Airbus UK, wants to build on the success of what he calls the world leading wing centre of excellence at Filton, saying: what a lot of people don't realise is two other key aspects of capability that Airbus does have vested in the UK. One landing gear integration, one is fuel systems. those are crown jewel responsibilities for Airbus UK"

The Morson Group, a specialised aircraft engineering firm, set up the Midland Engineering Centre on behalf of Airbus. Morson Projects executive director Steve Seddon, said, "We want to create this as a centre of excellence for systems engineering."

Automotive and aerospace use similar design programs so design engineers find it relatively easy to cross over from one industry to the other. but it is less straightforward for system engineers. "we need to retain from automotive and other industries" said Seddon. "the midlands gives us opportunity with fantastic engineers coming out of Rover and Peugeot. just because they are automotive doesn't mean that with the right guidance we can't develop them into future systems engineers in aerospace - now this may take time, maybe a year, two years or even five years"

But some engineers may initially feel underqualified or unsuitable for many of the positions advertised, especially in systems engineering. Emmanuel Pang made the transition from automotive to aerospace. he used to work for Peugeot and is now a fuel systems engineer at Morson Projects. he said "I used to look through the job section in PE and there were a lot of structure engineering positions for aerospace. I used to look at these and think, ‘they are never going to want me, someone who has only been working four years in the automotive industry'. but now that I am working with Morson Projects I can see that it is not as scary a leap as you might think."

Seddon is adamant that Airbus and Morson Projects don't see skilled individuals go to waste saying: "I am sure there are a lot of good people sitting there thinking ‘I can't do oil and gas' and I can't do aerospace'. we have initiatives now trying to get people to come and let us know they are interested because we will consider you."

Pang had this advice for engineers considering changing sectors: "you should not narrow yourself. if you are a product engineer or time study engineer you should not think of yourself being stuck in just that one job." often firms turn down potential candidates on the basis of their experience but Pang insisted that persistent engineers can get round this. he said: "you have to sell yourself. adapt your cv and your method of approach,"