INTELLIGENCE
Inspiring tomorrow’s engineers FEBRUARY 2021
EngineeringUK looks back on the difficult year that was 2020 and sees hope for the future
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ngineeringUK aims to increase the number and diversity of young people choosing academic and vocational pathways into engineering. It does this by working with young people as well as professional engineering institutions and engineering employers to help young people understand what engineering is, how to get into it and how to access educational and training opportunities on the way. The case for inspiring more young people about engineering (including young people from a more diverse background) is a compelling one. The emergence of new industries and technologies coupled with the government’s net zero ambitions, investment in infrastructure, industrial strategy and R&D commitment are adding to already significant demand for engineering skills. All of this amid the impact of Brexit and new immigration rules. Moreover, it’s important to increase the diversity of the engineering workforce to improve innovation, creativity, productivity, resilience and market insight by ensuring that all young people have equal opportunity, particularly in pathways that lead to fulfilling and rewarding careers in engineering. Quality science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) engagement plays a vital role in making sure young people are informed about engineering careers (in a way that levels up the uneven distribution of knowledge derived from their parents and teachers). Research shows that students who participated in a STEM careers activity in the preceding 12 months were 3.4 times more likely to consider a career in engineering. The impact of the pandemic
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Research shows that STEM initiatives such as the Big Bang (right) and Robotics Challenge (below) boost interest in engineering careers threefold
on young people’s educational and career aspirations makes this activity more important than ever.
What EngineeringUK did in 2020 EngineeringUK worked throughout 2020 to support engagement with a diverse range of younger people. This included: restructuring the Engineering UK State of Engineering 2020 report in response to the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, as well as changes from the pandemic publishing Engineering UK 2020 Educational Pathways – a comprehensive picture of the trends in STEM educational participation
and attainment across academic and technical pathways into engineering up to March 2020 launching Engineering Insights, an interactive web resource that provides regularly updated research and data on issues that are important to the engineering sector, including the economic impact of Covid-19 on UK engineering enterprise launching the Tomorrow’s Engineers online hub of resources holding the Big Bang Competition finals and a Big Bang Digital 2020 Science, Engineering & Covid-19 event online. The latter showcased the vital role of
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