The UK education system cannot produce enough engineers to support the economy, the follow-up report said, especially with a predicted increased reliance on home-grown talent post-Brexit. Led by the Royal Academy of Engineering with the IMechE as a leading contributor, Engineering Skills for the Future - the 2013 Perkins Review Revisited found “numerous barriers” to addressing the annual shortfall of 59,000 engineers and technicians, including narrow post-16 education options, teacher shortages and an overly restrictive Apprenticeship Levy.
“Engineering is enormously valuable to the UK economy but suffers from a chronic shortage of skills, let down by the education system that removes the option of an engineering career for too many young people at each stage of their education,” said Royal Academy fellow professor John Perkins, who led the original review and the follow-up.
“There has been little progress in addressing the UK’s engineering skills gap since I first reviewed the education system five years ago, but the government’s Year of Engineering campaign in 2018 has shown what can be achieved with concerted and coordinated action. As a profession, we must now continue to raise the profile of engineering nationally and leverage this to galvanise change for the better.”
Teacher numbers for STEM subjects have not kept pace with an increase in pupils since 2015 and government plans to address recruitment and retention challenges do not go far enough, the report said. Other issues identified include the potentially “disastrous effect” of introducing varied fees for different degree subjects, bias in recruitment, progression and retention, and restrictions to the Apprenticeship Levy.
One of the recommendations in the new report is for the government to review recruitment and retention of teachers, and to introduce a requirement for 40 hours of subject-specific continuing professional development for all teachers of STEM subjects every year.
“Many STEM teachers do not know about engineering and this is in turn restricts pupil’s exposure to the sector,” said Peter Finegold, IMechE head of education and a key contributor to the report.
“The STEM Insight programme provides an excellent blueprint for this approach, which we and the IET have committed over £200,000 to and which has delivered over 230 teacher placements in industry over the last four years. This gives teachers immersive access to engineering firms to understand the sector and the varied routes into engineering careers. Teachers bring this professionally life-changing experience back to school to inspire their colleagues and students.”
A divide between academic and technical education is a key theme in the report, something contributors said must be overcome for future engineers to have the right mix of practical skills needed for increasingly-digital workplaces. Recommendations to bridge the gap include an “urgent review of post-16 academic education pathways” to attract a broader range of young people into engineering, and the need for professional engineering organisations and employers to address the need for digital training.
The government should also give employers greater control and flexibility in how they spend the Apprenticeship Levy, the report said, including supporting other high-quality workplace training – such as improving digital skills.
“A profound shift in attitudes is required to achieve greater parity and if employers are to help with this they must be given greater flexibility in the use of the Apprenticeship Levy and more say in how their resources are spent in order to achieve this goal,” Finegold said.
'We have barely moved the dial'
Other recommendations from the report, produced by Royal Academy-led Education for Engineering, are for the government to ensure course funding with top-up grants if tuition fees are reduced and for employers to “take an evidence-based and data-driven approach to improve recruitment and increase retention and progression of underrepresented groups within organisations, including by introducing recruitment targets for underrepresented groups.”
“These changes have the potential to pay dividends in the years to come for young people, the economy, and society,” said professor Perkins.
Dame Judith Hackitt, chairwoman of manufacturer’s organisation EEF, said now is the time for “less talk” from a “multitude of initiatives” and “more action by industry and education”.
The report highlights the need to “desperately increase the pipeline of domestic talent into engineering ready for a post-Brexit world,” said Dame Judith. “The report shows that we have barely moved the dial on plugging the engineering skills gap in the last five years.”
She added: “We need to shout from the rooftops that vocational education in the digital age is as credible and valuable as academic routes and can supply our economy with the much needed talent from Generation Z for the future. Far from offering two separate routes, academic and technical education should be seen as intertwined, serving the demands of industry who are looking for a mix of vocational and academic learning to provide the innovators, creators and makers of the future.”
Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily reflect the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.