Research & policy
We base everything we do on evidence and we share our analysis and insight widely, with government, media, education and the engineering community.
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Employment: Engineering and tech employs 6.3 million people in the UK, accounting for 19% of all jobs. It’s predicted to grow faster than other occupations by 2030, with a significant increase in demand for ‘green engineering jobs’ and ‘green skills’.
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Skills shortages and diversity: The UK faces significant skills shortages and workforce challenges. The current workforce is not representative, with a spotlight on the gender gap. Only 15.7% of the engineering and technology workforce are women, and there’s a need for more diversity.
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Education and awareness: STEM subjects are popular, but engineering is underrepresented in the curriculum. There’s a shortage of STEM teachers, especially in deprived areas. Awareness of the range of routes into engineering and technology needs to be increased.
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Youth engagement: Outreach and STEM engagement activities are crucial for informing and inspiring young people. Those who attend STEM careers activities are more likely to be interested in engineering careers and understand what engineers do.
Research
For more than 20 years, we've undertaken comprehensive research into the state of engineering in the UK – providing a detailed examination of engineering’s economic contribution and the composition of its workforce, as well as the extent to which the supply through education and training pathways is likely to meet future needs and demand for engineering skills. This flagship research, once produced as a single report, is now available in a range of formats, providing the most up-to-date analysis.
Additionally, we regularly measure public perceptions of engineers and engineering and produce regular research reports, briefings and interactive dashboards.
Our research covers a range of themes:
- Educational pathways into engineering
- Industry and the engineering workforce
- Diversity in engineering
- Careers provision and engineering outreach
- Perceptions and knowledge of engineers and engineering
Evaluation
We want our work with young people to make a difference, so we evaluate all our activity and use those learnings to iterate activity so our engagements have as much impact as possible. We also share our evaluation tools to support activity across the engineering community.
It is through this evaluation that we can see the extent to which we are winning hearts and changing minds through our programmes, with positive impacts on young people’s understanding of what engineers do, their perceptions of engineering careers and whether they would know how to become an engineer if they wanted to. We also see how much they view engineering as a career for both boys and girls.
We know from this work that young people who meet an engineer (and know they have done so) have higher levels of knowledge of what people working in engineering do and a more positive attitude to engineering careers.
Policy and public affairs
We encourage collaboration across government, industry and education to ensure the UK has the engineering and technology skills and diversity of thought to deliver against our ambitions in terms of innovation, economic resilience, societal impact and sustainable living.
We analyse what enables, inspires or deters young people from choosing a career in engineering. We share those learnings widely, including with policy makers and politicians to give them a deeper understanding of the pathways to engineering, related enablers and blockers for young people and good practice for engagement activities, with a focus on increasing diversity in the engineering profession.
We work in partnership to broaden the collective reach of engineering inspiration, especially to groups underrepresented in the industry to help ensure the UK has the engineering workforce of the future it needs.
We drive and participate in inspirational campaigns which transform the perception of engineering of young people and their influencers.
