More young people are thinking about a career in engineering following a campaign to stimulate interest among school goers.
The Tomorrow’s Engineers Week ran in early November last year and aimed to get government, employers and educators enthusing about the potential with jobs in engineering.
Now a survey for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has found that the number of 11 to 14-year-olds thinking about working in engineering has risen 6% for both girls and boys.
There was also a 4% rise in the number of parents that said they would consider encouraging their children to pursue a career in engineering.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said, “It is encouraging to see that our efforts to highlight the importance of engineering as a career has had a positive affect and that more omen and girls are seeing it as an exciting career.
“As a country we excel in hi-tech industries, but we nee the need the engineers to maintain our competitive advantage. Government alone cannot solve this. We need to work with industry, universities, colleges and schools to keep momentum and guarantee the pipeline of talent so that business are not disadvantaged.”
Although a greater proportion of school goers said teachers had positively encourage engineering after the Tomorrow’s Engineers Week had run, levels were still low and there was a 2% rise in the number of boys that said the option had been actively discouraged by teachers.
A recent report by the Industry Apprentice Council found that grassroots support amongst career advisers for engineering at apprentice level is also very low. A study by the Centre for Economics and Business Research found engineering stands to benefit more than any other sector from apprentices, while research from the Institute of the Motor Industry says a well-selected and trained apprentice can deliver a return on investment of 300%
