The UK needs more "Cutting Edge" Engineering expertise
Richard Wishart
Enterprise Architect | Deeptech Entrepreneur | Driving Innovation in Delivery Management
Advanced Engineering skills and expertise are the key ingredients that will fuel the future of our United Kingdom economy. These skills need to be nurtured and developed within a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation. Professionally qualified engineers are the sort of people that are needed to turn the latest scientific advances into tangible "globally competitive" products and solutions.
I have been a Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) ambassador for the last three years trying to encourage and enthuse local students to take up careers in Engineering. However, I have become increasingly frustrated by a lack of understanding about STEM within the educational establishment. Tomorrow I am attending a "Taking the lead on skills" event which is being organised by the skills providers in our district.
In a month where we have seen the University Technical College (UTC) in Daventry closed because of lack of students and all the other UTCs in our region falling well short on numbers - it is clear to me that the educational establishment is not making the case for engineering careers to students or providing realistic pathways to produce the Engineering under-graduates of the future. This lack of interest in Engineering careers is likely to curtail the success of the iMET (Innovation, Manufacturing, Engineering and Technology) facility being built at Alconbury Weald Enterprise Zone (our local equivalent of a UTC)
Any advanced engineering economy requires an educational system that can produce large cohorts of high quality professional graduate engineers and highly skilled technicians. About 10 years ago I was visiting China regularly on business - and every city official I met could recite the number of graduates and PhDs that their city and region had produced in the last year - and it was very impressive. I am no advocate for the Chinese economy or their way of doing business - but the big question that I am going to ask tomorrow is:
"How many Engineering undergraduates did the Huntingdonshire education system produce last year - and how many will they be producing this year"
We should break this down into a scorecard by educational establishment - and I would be happy to help produce and audit this vital productivity index. In my humble opinion the most important productivity metric for our district if the growth plans for our region are to me achieved
written by
Richard Wishart Professional Engineer and STEM Ambassador
Marketing Specialist
8yWe need engineering embedded into the school curriculum in secondary schools. The skills are there but with Maths taught in isolation, few careers advisers and no Engineering GCSE offered how can we inspire young people into these careers??
Richard - too true. As a STEM ambassador in the Kent area, I see the same issues. Science - especially biotech - gets reasonable airtime but engineering misses out. I don't think people get the purpose of engineering which relies on the key skills of turning ideas and innovation into commercially viable products and processes. The STEM organisation has a remit to promote the education of engineers in the UK, but despite Big Bang fairs, the BP challenge, and other initiatives including those from IET, there seems a disconnect between the organisations who need engineering skills and the grass roots education level. We need a few like minded individuals to get together and form a better plan of action to get our young people to "get" that engineering provides intersting and lucrative careers. One aspect that of course has not helped in recent years has been the poaching of our numerate graduates by the finance industry. Let's hope that financial engineering has had its day...