Media Briefing: 25 August to 14 September 2018

Institution in the News

Peter Finegold’s letter to The Times highlights that many teachers feel they have lost a sense of autonomy to decide how best to do their job and develop their career. The launch of Never Too Late: Profiling Female Engineering Apprentices and the publication of Peter’s blog, which draws attention to the fact that women who study engineering tend to make their career decisions later than male peers, was featured in the education press.

The Press Office also launched Engineering Out Fashion Waste which calls for urgent action to prevent microfibers from pollution our oceans, announced the rebranding of IMechE Argyll Ruane and commented on the Scottish Government's Programme for Government.

• 31/08/2018 Problem of retaining teachers in schools – The Times

  Peter Finegold’s letter to The Times in which he highlights that the key to improving teacher retention is the need to restore professional self-esteem, which has been lost through rigid adherence to performance measures as the only valued educational outcomes.

• 12/09/2018 Wider approach needed to encourage more female engineering apprentices – FE News

  Coverage of the Institution’s Never Too Late report which highlights that many more young women could be interested in becoming engineering apprentices, but for them to be “converted” to engineering, there needs to be more support and encouragement later in their school careers. Also featured in the Times Educational Supplement, Education Technology, Plant & Works, Process and Control, Edquarter and Process Engineering.

• 10/09/2018 'Female engineering apprentices are not "a breed apart"' – Times Educational Supplement

  Peter Finegold’s blog in which he emphasises that there are things that can be done to attract more 'accidental all-rounders' to engineering.

• 13/09/2018 Clothing made of synthetic fibres releases up to 700,000 microplastic fibres into the sea when washed – The London Economic

  Coverage of Engineering Out Fashion Waste, which calls for the development of more environmentally friendly fabric fibres.

• Electric vehicles are the future - but is the UK ready? – Raconteur

  Article which outlines that electrifying the UK’s transport network can bring major benefits, though significant investment in infrastructure is still needed at a time of national austerity. The article quotes the Institution’s statistics that only 42 per cent of the UK’s rail network has been electrified, compared with 76 per cent in the Netherlands, 71 per cent in Italy and 61 per cent in Spain.

• 14/09/2018 SFR team ‘tastes success’ with Ceratizit – Machinery Market

  Story about the University of Sheffield, which has competed for the past 10 years under the team name Sheffield Formula Racing (SFR), challenging some of the leading universities from the UK and world at Formula Student. More Formula Student stories are covered in Electronic Specifier and Market Screener.

• 19/08/2018 Prototyping Firm Praised for Investing in ‘Next Generation’ of Engineers – AZO Materials
  News that a Letchworth prototyping company has helped a group of students reach the final stages of a major international aerospace competition. Features both the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Challenge and Formula Student.