2022 Excel resource
In recent years, we have published a suite of data tables accompanying chapters in the State of Engineering report related to STEM education. From 2022, the excel resource for each chapter will be updated individually as the data becomes available and published alongside a summary of the key findings.
This report looks at the secondary education landscape, including trends in entries and achievements for GCSEs/National 5s and A levels/Highers across the UK.
This excel resource contains the data tables for secondary education in the UK, covering:
- State funded secondary school population over time
- England, Wales and Northern Ireland - STEM GCSE qualifications
- England, Wales and Northern Ireland - STEM A level qualifications
- Scotland - STEM National 5 qualifications
- Scotland - STEM Higher and Advanced Higher qualifications
- STEM teachers
This report, which accompanies the updated Excel resource, looks at the secondary education landscape, including trends in entries and achievements for GCSEs/National 5s and A levels/Highers across the UK.
Secondary education is an important part of the pipeline into engineering careers. Performance in STEM qualifications at this level is one of the main ways to predict whether young people will continue into the relevant higher education. This can then help to predict whether there will be enough people ready to work in the engineering sector in the future.
However, there are challenges for the engineering sector even at this early stage of the educational pathway. There is a critical shortage in STEM teachers, and a lack of presence of engineering on the curriculum. We have also seen a decline in entries for some of the STEM subjects that would facilitate a future career in engineering, and an underrepresentation of girls in the key STEM subjects that would allow the engineering workforce to become more gender diverse.
This briefing looks at the qualifications available in further education (FE), with 2 main categories: technical/vocational qualifications and apprenticeships. We cover both, with more emphasis on apprenticeships (due to the data available).
This briefing is part of our educational pathways series and is accompanied by a suite of data tables looking at the qualifications available in further education (FE), with 2 main categories: technical/vocational qualifications and apprenticeships, with more emphasis on apprenticeships (due to the data available).
The focus is on ‘engineering-related qualifications’, which – in line with previous EngineeringUK research – covers the ‘construction, planning and the built environment’, ‘engineering and manufacturing technologies’, and ‘information and communication technology’ sector subject areas.
We look at the recently introduced T levels, their aim being to create clearer vocational pathways into engineering, while also allowing the flexibility to move across different educational routes. Construction was one of the first T levels to be introduced in 2020/21, with engineering and manufacturing to follow from 2022/23.
We then look at apprenticeships, which are an important route into engineering careers though numbers entering onto them have been impacted by reforms in recent years. Furthermore, when we look at the characteristics of apprentices, in terms of gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic background, there is less diversity among engineering than other subjects. This mirrors what we see in the engineering workforce and suggests that more work needs to be done to create more diversity amongst engineers for the future.