"Engineering is such a fulfilling career, but we know that there are some groups of people who are under-represented in the engineering workforce. For example, women are heavily under-represented in engineering and technology (16.5% of those working in engineering are female, compared to 48% of the working age population). Black and Asian engineering graduates are far less likely to go into an engineering career than white engineering graduates (37% of Black engineering graduates are employed in an Engineering occupation 6 months after graduation, compared to 41% of Asian engineering graduates and 60% of White engineering graduates). Disabled people are also under-represented in the engineering workforce (11% of people working in engineering occupations are disabled, compared to 15% of people working in other industries).
"To ensure that all young people get the opportunity to engage with quality engineering inspiration activities, targeting is likely to be key. With EngineeringUK programmes, we have found that an ‘open door’ policy of offering our programmes to all schools without any targeting, invariably led to schools engaging who had lower numbers of pupils from under-represented groups. Without identifying the groups you want to work with or having a process in place for targeting, you run the risk of engaging with the already engaged.
"Events like Tomorrow’s Engineers Live are crucial for the engineering outreach community because they provide them with the opportunity to discuss challenges, share insight and collaborate to ensure we are as inclusive as possible when producing engagement activity for young people."
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