Academy welcomes Government's stance on education

A Royal Academy of Engineering product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 10, 2006

Academy welcomes Government's stance on engineering education in keynote speech by Science Minister at the Educating Engineers for the 21st Century: the Industry View event in London.

The Royal Academy of Engineering has welcomed the Government's stance on engineering education confirmed in a keynote speech by Science Minister Lord Sainsbury on Thursday 30th March at the Educating Engineers for the 21st Century: the Industry View event in London.

The event discussed research that revealed a UK industry-perceived engineering graduate skills deficiency and looked at how to resolve the situation.

Lord Sainsbury said: "We need to show our young people that there are exciting and rewarding career opportunities in sectors such as aerospace, opto-electronics, nanotechnology, mobile communications, energy and bio-engineering".

"The Government will play its part in encouraging our brightest and best young people to take up engineering and last week we published the next steps of the 10 year Science and Innovation Framework".

"These set out education as the Government's priority".

"The Government's ambition is to create an education and training environment that delivers the best in science and engineering teaching and learning at every stage".

"To meet this ambition we announced in the budget a package of measures to improve the skills of science teachers, the quality of science and engineering lessons and increase progression to A' level sciences".

Lord Sainsbury also welcomed last week's Further Education White paper, which confirmed that colleges' primary purpose was to equip young people and adults with the skills and qualifications that individuals and employers need in a modern economy.

To support this aim, all young people up to the age of 25 will have free access to technical training to level three and the piloting of Learner Accounts for adult learners to assist them in gaining technician, skilled trade and associate professional qualifications, subsidising the cost of courses at a provider of their choice, together with the provision of tailored information, advice and guidance.

In his speech, Lord Sainsbury went on to highlight Tess - the Technology and Engineering in Schools Strategy.

Tess will provide a co-ordinated approach to delivering best practice in these educational support activities with the hope of more effectively motivating young people to pursue careers in technology and science.

Lord Sainsbury said: "Tess is a process that will help the engineering community organise itself to provide better co-ordinated support for the promotion of engineering and technology in schools on a national basis".

"Tess will lead to a consolidated offer of quality-assured curriculum-enrichment activities in and around schools".

The research "Educating Engineers for the 21st Century: the Industry View" by the Henley Management College for the Royal Academy of Engineering revealed that over one third of engineering firms in the UK believe that engineering graduate shortages and skills deficiencies are costing them money through delays in new product development and additional recruitment costs.

Almost half a million engineering graduates emerge each year from India and China.

In the UK, in the 10 years to 2004, the numbers of students opting for engineering courses remained almost static at 24,500 - dropping proportionately from 11% to less than 8% of university entrants.

Less than half the engineering cohort chose to enter the engineering profession after graduating from college.

For the Royal Academy of Engineering, Julia King said: "The Government and the engineering community face a major challenge in encouraging many more of our brightest and best young people to study engineering and technology in colleges and universities and take up careers in engineering".

"Government support will play a crucial role in delivering a vision of the UK as a global leader in turning knowledge into new products and services".

"But we need to see industry and universities collaborating to produce more inspiring engineering degree courses with closer industrial engagement".

"We must also increase the number of students choosing engineering courses".

"This will start in schools where we need to encourage more students to choose maths and physics with better provision for those subjects".