Tomorrow’s Engineers Week: Inspiring the next generation 

As we celebrate Tomorrow’s Engineers Week, the need for more engineers in the UK has never been greater.  We must have a long-term strategy linking education and employment to get a more diverse group of young people choosing STEM careers.

It’s no secret that the UK needs more engineers to clean up our energy system, ensure the defence sector has the talent it needs for success and so we have the skilled workforce needed to grow the economy. At EngineeringUK we have long argued that a shortage of engineering and technology skills in the UK is holding the country back. It is therefore encouraging to see that the government in its Industrial Strategy and IS-8 sector plans, as well as across other strategies, has now also acknowledged that engineers will be vital to the UK’s future. Government strategies are clear – we need to do more to attract people into, train and retrain the workforce.

In the Clean Energy Jobs Plan, for example, government highlights that the UK’s clean energy workforce will almost need to double by 2030, from 440,000 to 860,000 people. And the same plan also stresses that engineering roles are central to this growth, with engineers and technicians among the top 10 most-needed occupations. In addition, the construction sector has also been given a lot of attention in recent government announcements. As a result, new shorter apprenticeships are being rolled out to enable a rapid workforce expansion. 

Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, much of the focus has been on the immediate demand for skills; I call it a crisis management approach. 2030 is the focus and the challenge seems immense, with survey after survey telling us that employers are struggling to recruit for the skills they need. And in many ways, this focus is understandable. However, what has and continues to be less talked about is how we as a country ensure that we have people with the right skills not only in the next 5 years but going forward – beyond 2030.

Ensuring that people not only have the right skills and that we have enough engineers and technicians in the future to meet demand, requires government to think more strategically. It needs government to link the employment market to the education and skills system and for the system to be responsive to that demand. In light of this, we cautiously welcomed the post-16 education and skills white paper. It signals a promising step towards strengthening work-focused training for young people in key sectors like engineering and technology. However, government needs to also understand that people develop relevant skills way before they reach 16. The education system and the way we teach young people determines whether or not they choose to, and can access, a career in engineering and technology.

This means that we need to look at the curriculum, and the way we teach science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects at school. And it also means that we need to look at what opportunities there are for young people to understand and be inspired by the roles that are available in engineering and technology in the UK. We need them to understand what it is really like to work in this field and the variety of entry routes available. And we need to start this work now, not least because many of today’s 12 to 14 year-olds will be entering (pathways to) the workforce in 2030.

At EngineeringUK we want to enable young people from all backgrounds to realise there could be a future for them in engineering and tech. We work with schools, employers and across the engineering community to inspire the next generation of engineers and technologists. Tomorrow’s Engineers Week (10-14 November), an annual nationwide celebration, provides a great platform to do just that. The engineering community is working together to encourage young people to ‘dare to discover’, showing them that problem solving, iteration and tenacity are key in engineering and tech. Together, we’re shining a light on the vast range of possibilities a career in engineering and tech offers. Programmes such as this are vital to achieving a step change in young people’s interest in careers in this sector.

Central to our mission is increasing the diversity of young people seeing a career in engineering and technology as an option for them. Women are particularly under-represented in this sector, making up just 16.9% of the engineering and technology workforce. And the reality is that, unless we can encourage more girls to become the engineers and technologists of tomorrow, we will simply not have enough people to meet workforce demand. Never mind the missing out on the diversity of thought and ideas that this sector desperately needs.

Data shows that this gender split starts at school. The Science Education Tracker, for example, finds that just 12% of girls in years 10 and 11 say being an engineer fits well with who they are. Similarly, only 16% think a career in engineering is suitable for someone like them. This compares to 38% and 44% respectively for boys. To address this, we are leading the Gender Pathways Collective, along with BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, the Royal Academy of Engineering, Women’s Engineering Society (WES) and Women into Science and Engineering (WISE). To date, the partnership has brought together a coalition of over 40 organisations and together we are actively driving forward thinking and activities that look to address the systemic barriers underlying this gender imbalance.

While Tomorrow’s Engineers Week is a great opportunity to spotlight skills and careers in the sector, it is of course something that requires urgent and ongoing attention. We will continue to engage with government to address policy and delivery challenges in STEM and careers education and workforce planning for engineering and technology.

By Beatrice Barleon, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at EngineeringUK