Educating tomorrow’s engineers
1 min read
Young people, in general, believe that engineering in all its forms is dull and would rather do something else as a career. There's nothing particularly new about that, but it's a problem that is becoming more critical.
While there is general agreement that the UK's economy needs to have a greater focus on engineering, we are struggling to produce the number of engineers needed. Schools minister Nick Gibb believes measures must be put in place to 'wow' young people into industry, but has turned the task over to the engineering sector.
It's a tricky one; school children need to be exposed to engineering at an early age because career choices are invariably made by the time they are 14. Yet the school curriculum is such that there is little room for anything else but core subjects.
While industry certainly has a role to play - perhaps through an improved Ambassadors scheme - so too does the Government. If it wants more engineers, then it has to make room in the curriculum for children to learn more about engineering and the role of the engineer at an early age.