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On last night鈥檚 episode of The Apprentice, Lord Sugar enraged engineers across the country when he said 鈥淚鈥檝e never come across an engineer who can turn his hands to business.鈥�

Lord Sugar pronounced his controversial opinion before firing Glenn Ward, a 28-year-old senior design engineer from Hertfordshire.

Sugar鈥檚 comments came hours before engineering consultancy giant Atkins released a cracking set of financial results, proving clearly that some engineers can thrive in business.

Peter Hansford, president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, pointed to the Queens Birthday honours list as proof of engineers prowess in business.

鈥淥bviously this was just a throw away comment and we have no reason to think that this is a commonly held view,鈥� said Hansford.

鈥淥nly this week eleven civil engineers were named in the Queens Birthday honours announcement - engineers contribution to society and indeed business has never been more evident.鈥�

Added to that, a backlash against Lord Sugar has begun on Twitter with many name checking successful engineers such as James Dyson, Henry Ford and Bill Gates. The following is a list of some of the more eye-catching tweets:

Sacked for being an engineer? Shows that invert-snob, bitter Alan Sugar is scared of professionals. Stupid decision.

@andrewscheuber Lord Sugar has 鈥渘ever met an engineer who can turn his hand at business鈥�. Never met Larry & Sergey from Google then?

@dmfreedom I鈥檇 rather go into business with an engineer than a banker.

So, why put an Engineer through The Apprentice process, if Lord Sugar thinks he can鈥檛 work with them??

Sugar has never met an engineer who has been successful in business: he鈥檚 obviously yet to meet James Dyson.

Sugar, you are a prat. Does 鈥橠yson鈥� mean anything to you?

Predictably enough leading figures within the engineering industry have come out fighting today in support of their profession.  

Alan Watts, vice president of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, proudly claimed that the business world was littered with engineers who could disprove Lord Sugar鈥檚 assumption.

鈥淗e clearly doesn鈥檛 get out enough to meet the wide variety of successful engineering businessmen,鈥� said Watts.

鈥淓ngineers and technologists in most years form around 15% of FTSE 100 companies鈥� directors. Sir James Dyson, Sir John Rose (Rolls Royce) and Sir Robin Saxby (Arm) are just a few of the better known engineers and designers who can 鈥檛urn their hands to business鈥� and do it very well.

鈥淚 realise Lord Sugar鈥檚 comment was meant to be somewhat tongue in cheek and certainly makes good television. However in the real world engineers do turn their hands to business and do it rather well in fact.鈥�