Institution news
It is one of two major campaigns this year to shine the spotlight on our profession, using a mix of social media and practical activities to show young people how engineers can make a real difference to the world.
The Year of Engineering, which the Institution has supported, has been very successful in presenting engineering in a much wider context. Through a broad range of activities targeted at 7 to 16 year olds, it highlights how STEM skills drive many areas they are interested in, for example, sport, tech and fashion.
Running in parallel, is the Royal Academy of Engineering’s multi-year campaign This is Engineering, a social media initiative to challenge young people of 13-18, to reconsider what engineering really looks like.
At its heart are 12 short videos, each profiling a young engineer who is doing something remarkable. It’s been very successful with 27 million views this year.
While these campaigns are very valuable and have updated the profession’s image, they are not enough on their own. We need to raise the visibility of engineering in schools so that more young people gain inspiring hands-on experience and will consider it as a potential career.
The scale of this challenge is highlighted by a report this month from Barclays which showed that that only 6% of Generation Z, i.e. 16-23 year olds, are considering a career in manufacturing. One reason why young people are reluctant to take up a career in manufacturing is that there are misconceptions around the skills that workers can develop. Only one third of young people believe a career in manufacturing will provide them with advanced technology skills.
A broader-based education including practical experience in schools of the excitement of engineering and innovation, would make it easier for more young people to decide that manufacturing is a promising career choice.
We need to re-frame the narrative around engineering to promote it as creative and socially beneficial, leading to innovations which bring solutions to some of our most serious global challenges.
In our study “We think it’s important but don’t quite know what it is”: The Culture of Engineering in Schools”, we found that engineering is seen as a force for good but is rarely encountered in schools. This lack of exposure leads to a hazy and varied understanding of engineering among students. Girls feel particularly poorly informed and do not see it as relevant to their own lives.
At the same time, we need to promote technical routes for underrepresented groups. Government and industry support for apprenticeships is changing the narrative about blending academic and technical skills, which is very welcome.
Young women account for just 8% of engineering apprentices. Our report “Never Too Late”, funded by the Gatsby Foundation, looked at the profile of these apprentices for12clues to see how more young women could be encouraged to choose engineering as a career.
It found that female apprentices are not a “breed apart” and that many more young women could be attracted to engineeriFng given the right opportunities.
Recruiters should broaden their net to target young women interested in creative crafts and arts as female apprentices appear to be more inspired by these areas and less by “tinkering” and technology than their male counterparts.
The female apprentices were critical of the provision of school careers education. Teachers would benefit from the opportunity to have more real-life knowledge and experience of modern industry so that they can bring careers to life in the staffroom. To meet this need, we founded STEM Insight placements which provides unique opportunities for teacher/employer partnerships to promote greater understanding of career routes and job development in industry.
We need to build on this year’s momentum and ensure we make more progress in 2019 in closing the UK’s skills gap.