Activities for schools
We love working with schools. Delivering high quality, targeted outreach is essential to help support our mission to enable more young people from all backgrounds to be inspired into engineering and technology. Through research, activities for schools and evaluation we have a wealth of knowledge to share with the community and support you.
Understanding young people
We use research and evidence to further understand young people’s perceptions of STEM. In 2023, we ran the Science Education Tracker and examined 7,200 young people’s experiences and attitudes towards STEM careers.
Key findings show that interest in science has declined and a gender gap has opened up. Only 12% of girls say being an engineer fits well with who they are. And while opportunities for practical science are particularly important for less engaged students, only a quarter of GCSE students are doing practical work at least every fortnight.
Understanding schools
We can help you understand how to work with schools effectively and navigate the education landscape and different qualifications available to young people. From engaging with senior leadership, to the career provision and frameworks they are held accountable to.
Our research shows that teachers’ knowledge of engineering and confidence in giving careers advice was generally high. However, more work is needed to improve teachers’ perceptions of engineering as a career choice, with just under a third (31%) viewing it as a secure profession and 28% seeing engineering roles as complicated or difficult.
Our work with schools
We want all young people to have the chance to get hands-on with STEM, and to meet and learn about people working in engineering and tech. Our inspiring, curriculum-linked programmes offer that opportunity. We promote everything we do for schools through EUK Education. We don’t charge schools to participate.
We target and prioritise our activities to young people who may be less engaged in STEM. We use our EDI criteria to identify priority schools and target (and sometimes ringfence) our programmes. These schools have higher proportions of students who are female, disabled, from UK minority ethnic groups or eligible for free school meals.
To measure our impact, we evaluate our programmes before and after activities to determine what and how perceptions have changed. This helps us determine what’s working well, and what needs to change.
Volunteering with us
Can you help inspire the next generation? We have a range of volunteering opportunities such as judging student projects, telling your story, offering careers support and delivering inspiring hands-on activities.
Plus, bring STEM careers to life for young people as a STEM Ambassador. Or support schools to create a climate action plan and inspire students with careers in environmental sustainability as a Climate Ambassador.
Creating great outreach
Creating effective outreach is key to supporting and inspiring young people to choose engineering and technology careers. When designing outreach, organisations should consider the demographic groups being targeted and the most effective way to reach them. You should also consider your evaluation strategy – how will you measure your impact?
The Tomorrow’s Engineers website curates resources from across the sector and beyond to help you to design, develop, deliver and evaluate your outreach. Take a look to get support with careers inspiration and delivering inspiration activities. Plus, take a deep dive into how to consider equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and evaluation from the very start.
Evaluating outreach
Evaluating our programmes is essential to allow our teams to develop successful and impactful activities for young people. Without it, we don’t know what’s working and how to improve. At EngineeringUK, we use surveys, focus groups and observations to inform how we develop and refine our activities for schools. We consider both teachers and students in our evaluations. We also examine attitudes and knowledge before and after activities to determine what and how perceptions have changed.
All of our programme evaluations, tools and top tips are made available for the engineering and technology community to help the sector grow and improve.
Useful resources
Our resources are designed to help you plan, deliver and evaluate inclusive, high impact engineering and technology outreach activities for schools. These are hosted on Tomorrow's Engineers.
Careers inspiration
How can you strengthen careers messaging in your outreach so young people see the wide range of careers available to them in modern engineering and tech?
Delivering inspiration activities
How can you make your activities really impactful for young people? Find practical support for designing and delivering your activities, both online and in person.
Equity, diversity and inclusion
How can you make sure your outreach is inclusive and engaging for all young people? Understand EDI in the context of engineering outreach design and delivery.
Research and evaluation
How do you know what works? Get support on getting the right feedback and understanding the impact of what you do – so you can improve delivery.
Dates for your diary
Use our handy calendar to help you plan. From Tomorrow’s Engineers Week and The Big Bang Fair to the Tomorrow’s Engineers Live conference, find key dates linked to our work. You’ll also see awareness days you can tap into to boost your outreach.
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