Abstract
Internationally the demand for industrial engineers is growing, due to the economic downturn as well as constraints on natural resources. Yet, at the University of Johannesburg, the majority of students who seek admittance to the engineering faculty do not choose industrial engineering as their first choice. A quantitative study was done by surveying industrial engineering students in the first and second year, to determine the number of engineering students at UJ whose first choice was industrial engineering. In addition the satisfaction with the course of those students who did not choose it originally was determined. We investigated the impact of open days and engineering weeks, as arranged by the University, on pupils’ choice of industrial engineering? The study found that a large portion of students did not choose industrial engineering as their first choice and it seems to be due to a total lack of knowledge with regard to industrial engineering. The perceptions of school pupils of engineering need to be changed and issues with the current standard of high school mathematics need to be explored further. The question to ask is: How can we improve the marketing of industrial engineering as a career.