Annette Valentine, Head of Business Partnerships at EngineeringUK, has written a blog highlighting the importance of collaboration ahead of the Tomorrow's Engineers Live conference.
"At the last count, there were over 600 organisations in the STEM landscape involved in delivering STEM education and outreach support. This complex landscape makes it difficult for employers to work out how and where to focus their effort to deliver impactful outreach programmes that enrich the lives and aspirations of the young people in the communities in which they operate. The Tomorrow’s Engineers Live conference, taking place on Monday 11 July, will bring together the engineering outreach community to discuss these challenges and share good practice.
"In my experience, engineering employers are keen and committed to inspiring and informing more young people from diverse communities about careers in engineering from a business and social perspective. That said, they do need to ensure that they are making a difference with the resources and time they have available. How best to do that underpins many of the conversations I have with our employer partners.
Working with others
"Collaborating with others to share insight, good practice, effort and resources is one way to support and accelerate thinking and planning, and strengthen delivery to maximise the impact of their outreach work. This is exactly the approach we’re taking with the action research project that we are delivering in partnership with the Sheffield Mayoral Authority, The Manufacturing Forum and local delivery partners and stakeholders. Our plan is to work with a group of large companies and SMEs that reflect the local engineering growth sectors and prove the value of a collaborative outreach delivery model, wrapped around existing structures and programmes like the local CEC Career Hub, the Tomorrow’s Engineers Code and local STEM outreach programmes like those run by the work-wise foundation.
"Our action research project will take place during the summer/autumn of 2022. Through a series of one to one conversations and focus groups, we will talk to local companies, teachers and various stakeholders and find out from them what challenges they experience, what outcomes they would like to see and how they think our proposed delivery model could work in practice."
Read the full blog.
