Levelling up engineering skills

Levelling up engineering skills: widening opportunities for young people, published in January 2022, provides an overview of young people’s and their parents’ knowledge and perceptions of the different routes into engineering careers, drawing on regional insights from EngineeringUK’s latest Engineering Brand Monitor.

The briefing gives an insight into what young people and their parents know about the different vocational routes into engineering. It highlights that there is still a significant majority of young people who don’t know about the apprenticeship options available to them, with even more young people having no knowledge of the new T level qualification.

It also shows that this knowledge varies by region and by parental socioeconomic and educational status.

We pose a series of questions for policymakers as the levelling up white paper approaches, focused on ensuring that all young people, whatever their background gender or ethnicity know about the career opportunities in the science and engineering sectors, and the routes to get there:

1. Places and people
   What is the interplay between the place-based objectives for levelling up and the government’s social mobility goals? What can and should the government do to address both?
2. Empowering local solutions
   What role is envisaged for local government and regional government in levelling up skills, including combined authority mayors?
3. Widening participation
   How will the levelling up white paper help to widen participation for young people from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds in vocational, academic and combined routes into science and engineering?
4. Increasing awareness of vocational pathways
   What steps will the government take to help level up knowledge and awareness of vocational routes into science and engineering, including apprenticeships and T levels?
5. Careers provision
   What steps are the government taking to increase investment in careers information, advice and guidance in schools and colleges as part of the drive to level up skills? Will the roll out of careers hubs be accelerated for example?
6. Cross-departmental working
   How will government departments work together to ensure an integrated approach on areas like skills, careers provision, youth unemployment and future workforce planning?
7. Measuring success
   How will the government measure success in levelling up skills outcomes for young people, including widening opportunities in STEM?

Download the briefing