Dec 20, 2018
As we look ahead to another exciting year, we’d like to thank everyone who has helped make 2018 – the Year of Engineering - so rewarding. Many of the following highlights of the year were only possible because of the support we have from across the engineering community.
The Engineering UK: the state of engineering was published for the 20th time this year and was followed by 2 EngineeringUK briefings: Gender disparity in engineering and Social mobility in engineering. These key elements of the research programme include external commentary and case studies and we’re grateful for all the support in their production and dissemination.
Women in work, social mobility and digital transformation were the topics of discussion at our Engineering Connections event series, where we look at some of the key topics having an impact on business today.
We have worked with even more companies, of all sizes and across the UK, who share our mission to inspire tomorrow’s engineers. We are proud of how this network of partners works together to inspire the next generation and to increase and diversify the talent pipeline into engineering.
The year has seen a huge collaborative focus on inspiring the next generation and we have benefited from this in our work to develop Tomorrow’s Engineers to help young people understand how what they learn at school is used in the real world.
Our careers materials, particularly the 100 jobs in STEM poster, have again proved hugely popular for inspiring and informing people of all ages about career options. This year also saw the launch of This is Engineering. We are proud to be a partner in this campaign to showcase how young people can follow what they love into engineering.
Our work with partners across the community resulted in a record-breaking Tomorrow’s Engineers Week that saw over 850 schools take part in our first Big Assembly and more than 100,000 people watch films of inspiring engineers on a mission.
In March we welcomed almost 80,000 visitors to The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair and throughout the year tens of thousands more young people enjoyed the Big Bang Near Me experience closer to home at a regional fair or @ school event.
The Fair also hosted the UK finals of The Big Bang Competition, which saw just under 500 talented young people showcase their project work and compete for awards in engineering and science. Josh Mitchell was crowned UK Young Engineer of the Year for his low-cost, flat-pack 3D printer and Emily Xu became the GSK UK Young Scientist of the Year after impressing the judges with her project on new ways of separating mirror image molecules. Alongside other finalists they went on the represent the UK at international competitions, scooping some coveted prizes. The next round of UK finalists have been announced and we look forward to seeing their projects in 2019.
Hundreds of volunteers have helped make so much of this possible, from judging student projects and offering careers support, to delivering hands-on activities and inspiring an interest in STEM subjects.
The Tomorrow’s Engineers EEP Robotics Challenge saw a team from McLaren High School, Callander, crowned UK winners having competed against hundreds of other students across the country. Tomorrow’s Engineers Energy Quest had young people in England, Scotland and Wales finding out all about sustainable energy and associated careers in the hands-on Energiser Workshop. We can’t wait to see their energy innovations as part of The Bright Ideas Challenge.
Thank you to everyone who helped make 2018 so special, we look forward to working with you to make 2019 even more fantastic.
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