Product Design and Manufacture
A degree in product design and manufacture equips you to take ideas from concept to reality - blending creativity, engineering, and user-focused design to create innovative, manufacturable products.
It also develops in-demand skills in CAD, prototyping, materials selection, and project management - making you valuable across industries focused on innovation, usability, and production efficiency.
Where can it take you?
You could work with companies like Dyson, LEGO, Jaguar Land Rover, Philips, or design consultancies - across sectors including consumer products, automotive, healthcare, and technology.
Common roles include:
Product designer, design engineer, manufacturing engineer, CAD specialist, UX designer, or roles in prototyping, innovation, and industrial design.
What skills will I gain during my degree?
In addition to your professional and technical skills, your product design and manufacturing degree will equip you with key employability skills such as:
- problem-solving
- research and analysis
- creative and innovative thinking
- verbal and written professional communication including presentation skills
- co-ordinating with others and teamwork
Some students choose to use the skills they have gained throughout their degree to move into graduate roles outside of engineering.
How can I develop my skills and gain experience during my degree?
Regardless of whether you are a first year or final year, developing skills outside your degree will enhance your CV and allow you to provide evidence of these in applications and at interviews. We have a wide range of opportunities at the University for you to explore:
Faculty of Engineering placements
An industrial placement will enable you to gain industry experience, crucial for your career development.
Work experience and volunteering
Depending on what area of work or role you might be interested in, and where, there will be specific strategies, from speculative applications to formal processes you need to be familiar with.
Nottingham Internship Scheme
We work closely with a huge variety of local and national businesses to bring you an exciting range of internship opportunities, for both current students and recent graduates.
Nottingham Consultancy Challenge
The Nottingham Consultancy Challenge offers the chance for you to gain hands-on experience of managing a short term project for a local business or charity as part of a multi-disciplinary team.
Nottingham Advantage Award
Through the completion of extracurricular modules, the Nottingham Advantage Award helps you develop key life and work-based skills and reflect on your experiences, allowing you to demonstrate your achievements and skills more effectively when applying for jobs
Apply for part-time jobs
The university advertises part-time, casual and temporary jobs on campus and with local businesses.
Created just for you, the advertised vacancies can fit around your studies and other commitments.
Students' Union
The Students’ Union offers a wide range of volunteering options both locally and internationally which you can fit around your studies.
Alternatively you could get involved in a society or sports club - there's so many, you're bound to find one that interests you!
Careers events
We offer a range of events to develop your skills and meet employers throughout the year. Check out:
What are the range of careers I can enter?
As a product design and manufacturing engineer, there are a number of employment sectors you could consider.
- Product Design – Dyson, Bosch, Cummins
- Aerospace - Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, Meggitt Plc, Airbus)
- Engineering consultancy - Arup, Aecom, WSP
- Defence - Leonardo, Ultra Electronics, Babcock, MBDA
Here is a small sample of the employers who recruited our graduates over the years.
- Mondelez
- Dyson
- Cambridge Design Partnership
- Princess Yachts Ltd
- Innovative Product Design
- Phase Two Design
Other engineering roles
Other engineering roles such as process engineering, project engineering, renewable energy engineering can either be progressed into directly with aerospace degrees or following from a more specialised MSc.
Non-engineering careers for engineers
Not all engineering graduates become engineers. Many of our graduates find alternative opportunities where they are able to use their transferable skills:
- problem-solving and analysis
- project management
- high degree of numerical and computer literacy
- teamworking
- communication
Examples of non-engineering roles and employers of Nottingham graduates:
Job roles
- Analysis roles – credit analyst, data analyst
- Finance and accounting
- Project management
- Risk management
- Supply chain
- Technical and business consulting
- Technology and software development
Employers
- Bank of America
- Barclays
- BT
- Deloitte
- KPMG
- PwC
- Royal Bank of Scotland
- Santander
- Sky
Explore more graduate roles
What do graduates from my course go on to do?
Graduate Outcomes is a national survey capturing the activities and perspectives of graduates launched in 2018 and is the biggest annual social survey in the UK.
You can view the destinations of graduates, who completed the survey, from your course by booking an appointment with an adviser. This can help you to explore your options if you are unsure what you want to do.
Find out more about the Graduate Outcomes survey
Where are they now?
Discover the stories of our engineering graduates.
Richard Benc, MEng Product Design and Manufacture, is Founder of Studio Underd0g. Richard shares his career path from Nottingham to setting up his own business.
When I graduated, I wanted to move to London, so I applied for various jobs including design consultancy roles. It was very competitive, but I managed to get a role at Zeon Ltd.
Read more from Richard
What further study options do I have?
Some students will progress into further study at postgraduate level in both engineering and non-engineering related areas. Examples of recent further study destinations of product and design students include:
- MSc Product Design and Manufacture
Postgraduate study can be a way to develop a further specialism in a particular area of interest, either through carrying out research or undertaking specialist taught modules. It can also be a way to gain skills and qualifications in areas outside engineering in order to progress into other professions.
For students studying for a BEng qualification undertaking an accredited MSc will give you the level of qualification necessary to become a chartered engineer and to meet the entry requirements of some graduate engineering employers who ask for a masters level qualification.
For students studying for an MEng degree, undertaking an MSc won’t give you a higher-level qualification, but it can be a way of specialising in an area.