Mark Titterington
Chief Executive, EngineeringUK
This is the sector where you can make the biggest difference both to your own life and the society you live in, says Mark Titterington, Chief Executive of EngineeringUK.
Engineering makes the world a better place, whether that’s through the built environment, mass transportation, energy pipelines or the water and sewage systems that transform lives around the world.
Engineering makes the world a better place.
But engineering is also impacting our lives in ways that we could never have imagined ten years ago. We’re on the cusp of breakthroughs in clean energy, in sustainable agriculture technologies, driverless cars and artificial intelligence. Engineering today goes way beyond many people’s expectations.
It’s also making a huge contribution to the economic prosperity of the UK, contributing an astonishing £486 billion pounds to the UK GDP every year and employing roughly six million people.
Shattering pre-conceptions
However, it’s facing some huge challenges – the greatest being an acute skills shortage.
We need around 45,000-80,000 additional skilled workers each year and, in order to address that deficit, we need to shatter some pre-conceptions about engineering.
Very few engineers actually wear hard hats and fluorescent jackets day-in, day-out.
Very few engineers actually wear hard hats and fluorescent jackets day-in, day-out so our challenge is to provide young people, and particularly girls, with relevant role models and a real industry insight.
When I speak to young engineers and ask what made the greatest difference to them, they tell me it was good quality careers information. I’m delighted that industry is rising to the challenge and engaging more and more with more schools and colleges, showing young people where studying science and maths can take them. Our young people possess so much creativity and we need to show them their learning can make a tangible difference; in fact, it can change the world.