Engineering news
Engineering: Building the right skills, surveyed 1,158 members of the IMechE. The report found two main areas that engineers felt put off young people entering the profession: a lack of understanding about an engineer’s job (70%) as well as the image of engineering (68%).
At the panel event discussing the reports’ findings it was stated that an increased collaboration between industry, engineering organisations, as well as a breaking down of barriers, was key to tackling these issues.
José Lopes, head of technical excellence for Jaguar Land Rover, said: “Collaboration must get over artificial barriers between engineering disciplines or it will stifle skills and the ability to identify the new skills needed for engineering in the future.”
Lopes said there was a need for a “consistent and coherent approach” from industry and engineering organisations to get more young people into engineering. “Industry needs to have an inspiring narrative, lead and collaborate with organisations, which is often left too much to the third sector to do alone,” he said.
Dr David Clark, from the University of Warwick, said there was a problem with the hundreds of engineering organisations all attempting to tackle the skills shortage at once. He added that engineering must be “multidisciplinary and “avoid compartmentalisation”.
This sentiment was also shared by Benita Mehra, president of the Women’s Engineering Society, who said that “formalised barriers” between various engineering sectors could stifle creativity needed to keep the UK at the “leading edge” of technology developments, which could prevent the profession from appearing an attractive proposition for young talent.
Finding ways to show how engineering solves important world problems using creativity and innovation was stated as being key to improving the image of engineering by the panel members. Highlighting the social benefits of engineering was said to be one of the best ways to attract more people into the sector, according to 60% of the survey’s respondents.
Engineering education reform
The report also found that almost two-thirds (63%) of engineers believe that the UK education system will not meet the needs of the engineering sector by the middle of the next decade unless reforms are made.
Dr David Landsman, executive director at Tata, who chaired the roundtable event, said that the report was timely considering the attention given to skills and technical training in the spring Budget, which announced a new T-Levels qualification for 16-19 year olds.
The discussion around skills in engineering is not new said Landsman, stating that the sector is “always talking” about skills shortages and that engineering is not attractive enough. “There are hundreds of organisations attempting to tackle this but not in aggregate and they are not creating enough of a change. It needs a jolt. We must be bolder,” said Landsman.
He added that whatever the politics around Brexit, the conditions created by the UK’s exit from the EU could be just the jolt that engineering needs to better tackle the skills problem.
While panel members at the event welcomed the recent introduction of T-Levels, some raised concerns that there is still a wider issue around the image of technical routes into education are seen to be less respected and academic.
Colin Brown, director of engineering at the IMechE, said that the education system should consider maintaining a “broader curriculum for longer” to avoid pigeonholing students.
Brown added that with the amount of investment into education, it was surprising how little was spent on measures to analyse and improve it. “If JLR spent £1 trillion on a machine it would not neglect maintenance on such a large investment.”
Meanwhile, the EEF chair Judith Hackitt voiced concerns that many graduates are put off entering the engineering sector due to the way engineering is taught at UK universities. Hackitt pointed to pioneering technical universities such as the proposed New model in engineering and technology (Nmite) university in Herefordshire as well as the Dyson Institute for Technology as examples of how to improve the way engineering is taught in higher education.
Hackitt questioned whether a more “holistic” approach should be taken to teaching engineering to cope with future challenges. “We should teach philosophy as well as fluid dynamics,” said Hackitt.