Graduate engineering jobs possible - graduate jobs

Graduates searching for engineering jobs might want to consider the Dyson group, which is set to expand its UK workforce after doubling its earnings.

Its profits went up from £90 million in 2008, to £190 million in 2009, prompting a decision to increase staff in this country to 1,600.

This will include doubling the size of the engineering team from 350 to 700, to increase research and development into new products. Last year it spent £42 million on product development.

The group currently employs about 2,500 people around the world, with pioneering work being done in its Wiltshire laboratories. Fluid, electrical, thermal, acoustic and software engineering, as well as microbiology, is done there.

Part of the group's success in the past year has been down to its invention of new technologies, such as a new desk fan, which uses an air "ramp" instead of blades and the Airblade hand dryer. The fan has already taken a 64% share of the market in Australia since its launch.

The brand became a household name after launching the bagless vacuum cleaner, and claims to have filed the second largest number of patents in the UK, after Rolls-Royce.

Martin McCourt, chief executive of Dyson, said the group had an "unbelievable bank of ideas" for further new products and designs - many of which are outside its traditional vacuum cleaner market.