Apr 11, 2017
The latest Tomorrow’s Engineers booklet From idea to career, explore 12 areas of engineering has proved hugely popular, with over 32,000 orders in the first two weeks. Head of Careers, Eleanor Eyre, is proud of the work we do to inspire young people. Here she talks about her work to develop high-impact resources:
Engineering is a huge and diverse industry that can be quite confusing for students, who may switch off as a result. So, it’s important for everyone in engineering to communicate in the same language and with the same positive and inspiring message – engineering is an exciting career option with a path to suit everyone. The first step is to attract young people to engineering, the choice of specialism comes much later.
Much of my time is spent developing careers resources for young people, careers advisers, teachers and parents - working with colleagues at IET, ICE, IMechE, IoP, Royal Academy of Engineering and other professional engineering institutions. I’m also responsible for ensuring consistent and inspiring careers messages underpin everything we do at EngineeringUK.
Interacting with students while at events, like at The Big Bang Fair last month, is one of my favourite things about my job and I’m really proud that last year we reached over 1m young people with our careers resources and activities. These are developed with specialists in careers, education and marketing to work well for young people and reflect the language they use and everyday examples they are familiar with.
Recently there has been a real focus on diversity and inclusion to ensure we represent different types of people throughout the materials we develop. That means women, men, people from different educational backgrounds, different ethnicities, able-bodied and disabled people. The aim is to show that anyone can consider engineering as a career choice, so we want young people to be able to see themselves in the engineering professionals we feature.
We’re always keen to create new case studies of early career engineers, technicians and apprentices for use online and in resources. Perhaps your story could be an inspiration to others.
If you’re speaking to young people about engineering, I hope you’ll think about the careers messaging your organisation uses and get in touch if you want to have a chat about it. If you’re not already part of it, do join the Tomorrow’s Engineers network to access inspiring careers literature. My favourite resources include the Engineers save lives poster and the teacher notes that accompany it, what are yours?
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