From Birdcage Walk

The latest in our ongoing series of updates about activities at the Institution.

Dear Member,

The annual ‘State of the Nation’ report from Engineering UK always makes interesting reading for those of us worried about skills supply in the UK.  The current edition unfortunately has no positive surprises. What it does show is that whilst 47% of the UK workforce is female and 12% comes from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, the corresponding figures for engineers and technicians are just 12% and 8% respectively.  The message isn’t new, but the ‘needle has hardly moved’ despite everything we have been trying to do.

And so this coming weekend 23 June, we try again. In support of International Women in Engineering Day there are 54 events around the world listed on their website. It is great to see the breadth of organisations, including ourselves, that have taken part in creating activities. There are events listed organised by our Leicester Young Members, Thursday 20 June, and our Yorkshire Region, Thursday 27 June, that would welcome your attendance.  For those that can get to Birdcage Walk we have a full programme of competitive activities run by the Greater London joint institutions for Year 9 and 10 students on Friday 21 June. 

For those further afield there are also events listed in Ireland, Spain, Hong Kong, Canada and the USA; most are occurring either this week or next. There is also a webinar for all of us who can get internet access on Friday 21 June (11.30 to 12.30 British Summer Time) called ‘Transform the Future’.

But it’s not all about women.  There is a huge need for our profession to be open to all.  We have promoted our diversity and inclusion training in the past and this is a great chance to remind you of the free service we offer. For those of us who struggle with mobility, or hearing, or sight or simply reading and writing, we all realise there is so much more we can do to make engineering an attractive and fulfilling career. Just let us know either below here or by email  if you feel there’s something we are missing out on that could really make a difference.  Our new Trustee year is just starting and it would be great to help them with your thoughts as they put together their plans.

You can find profiles of our Trustees on the Trustee Board pages.

Colin Brown

Chief Executive

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