---
title: "When An Engineering Education Doesn’t Teach You How To Really Make Anything"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/when-an-engineering-education-doesn-t-teach-you-how-to-really-make-anything-lcs7zrheb
source_url: https://hackaday.com/2026/07/07/when-an-engineering-education-doesnt-teach-you-how-to-really-make-anything
type: article
source: "Hackaday"
published: 2026-07-07T17:18:16.477Z
updated: 2026-07-07T17:18:35.314Z
tags: ["hardware"]
reading_time: 7
upvotes: 0
comments: 0
language: en
---

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# When An Engineering Education Doesn’t Teach You How To Really Make Anything

**[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

A reflection on the gap between engineering university education and real-world manufacturing skills. Drawing from personal experience and a conversation with a fellow graduate, the author argues that engineering degrees over-index on theory and academic preparation while neglecting practical design-for-manufacture skills. Recent graduates often produce designs that cannot be volume manufactured, while apprentices can. The author proposes a teaching method using intentionally flawed PCB designs that students must diagnose and fix through multiple manufacturing spins with inexpensive PCB assembly houses — mirroring real-world iteration without requiring group projects or industry placements.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://hackaday.com/2026/07/07/when-an-engineering-education-doesnt-teach-you-how-to-really-make-anything>

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---

Tags: [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/when-an-engineering-education-doesn-t-teach-you-how-to-really-make-anything-lcs7zrheb)