November 2015
Featured in this insight: Business & enterprise, Education, Financial services, Manufacturing, engineering & industrial
Survey finds majority of public would encourage youngsters to get into engineering: A recent engineering survey of the UK public has revealed that the majority of people would encourage young people to get into the engineering profession.
Of the 1,000 people in the survey – which was carried out by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers – 86 per cent said that they would encourage young people to work towards a career in engineering, in comparison with 80 per cent who said the same for being a doctor, 56 per cent for accountants and 36 per cent for banking.
Head of Education and Skills at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Peter Finegold, said that the research findings were “both encouraging and surprising”. Finegold said that urgent action was needed to get past a shortfall of 30,000 qualified engineers passing through the education system every year.
He said: “Much more needs to be done to ensure we get the growth in UK engineers this country needs, through better careers advice, establishing better links between schools and local employers, and a fundamental rethink in the education system to boost science engineering technology and maths education in schools.”
The survey findings come after another study was released by Engineering UK, which outlined that females are deterred from studying engineering because of the manly representation of engineers in marketing material for career opportunities.
The market research was commissioned as part of Tomorrow’s Engineers Week, which runs from the 2nd to the 6th of November, and aimed to change the perceptions of engineering amongst young people, parents and teachers, to inspire potential future engineers.
A new report is expected to be launched later in 2015, by The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, which will explore new ideas to increase the number of individuals embarking on STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) careers.
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