House of Commons - Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee

Engineering: turning ideas into reality - Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee Contents

Memorandum 21

Submission from the Engineering and Technology Board

1. INTRODUCTION AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1 The Engineering and Technology Board (ETB) welcomes the Committee's Inquiry into engineering. The ETB supports the joint written evidence submitted by the "professional engineering community". This written evidence concentrates on issues which specifically relate to the work and remit of the ETB.

1.2 The ETB is an independent organisation that promotes the vital role of engineers, engineering and technology in our society. The ETB partners business and industry, Government and the wider science and technology community: producing evidence on the state of engineering; sharing knowledge within engineering; and inspiring young people to choose a career in engineering, matching employers' demand for skills.

- Engineers and engineering make a vital contribution to the UK's economic prosperity and to meeting some of the key global challenges we face.

- Greater effective coordination is needed on the multiplicity of promotional and awareness-raising activities that are currently undertaken by a wide range of public, private and professional organisations. While many of these interventions and initiatives are excellent and have national coverage, better coordination would maximise impact and improve the consistency of messaging.

- Improved links between employers and education providers are needed to ensure that education providers better understand employers' skills requirements, specifically on the content and design of the engineering diploma. A recent initiative at Warwick University in automotive technology is a good example of business and academia working together to create a course that delivers the skills that employers need.

- We welcome the announcement in this year's Budget of support for innovation, particularly through public procurement and specifically for SMEs. We would welcome a review of the impact of procurement on the performance of technology businesses.

2. THE ROLE OF ENGINEERING AND ENGINEERS IN UK SOCIETY

2.1 The lifestyle we enjoy today is, to a large extent, the result of engineers applying science to create the technology that most people take for granted. The UK led the world in the application of engineering, to create its Industrial Revolution. This has continued over the last two hundred years and the harnessing of our world-class science base has allowed us to remain one of the world's richest nations. Engineers and engineering are thus central to sustaining and building on the UK's economic competitiveness and to improving our quality of life:

- Supporting the UK's economic competitiveness. In the current technology-based global economy, the UK's continued and improved economic performance will depend upon achieving a balanced and sustainable economic model. This will be one that is not just reliant on the service sector and one which produces and capitalises on a population of world leading scientists and engineers to produce and exploit technology.

- Sustaining and improving our quality of life eg healthcare, particularly medical diagnostics and communications (mobile phones, etc).

- Mitigating some of the key global challenges we face, recognising that these serious threats also offer opportunities for technological developments and new markets in which engineers and engineering will play an increasingly important role, eg global warming, the identification and delivery of sustainable energy sources, the supply of clean water.

2.2 Indeed, the ways in which engineering contributes to society are becoming ever more pervasive and diverse as new technologies (the products of engineering), and new applications for these technologies, proliferate. Engineering is dynamic, continually evolving to meet changing circumstances and needs.

2.3 A recent report[39] commissioned jointly by the ETB and the Royal Academy of Engineering suggests that the extent and nature of engineers' and engineering's contribution go largely unrecognised, with people failing to make the connection between the technology they enjoy and the role of engineering. Improving understanding of the relevance of engineering is a necessary precursor to improving perceptions of engineering. This misconception is particularly pronounced amongst young people.

2.4 The general perception of engineering is clouded by a number of issues:

- the persistence of an outdated view of engineering-a view which harks back to a nineteenth century image of engineering

- a lack of clarity (even within the profession) about exactly what constitutes engineering and who exactly should be called an engineer.

2.5 This lack of understanding is particularly concerning given the demographic decline in young people[40] and the fact that engineers have tended to be drawn from a particular demographic' ie white men.

2.6 One contribution to addressing this lack of understanding is the ETB web portal-scenta[41]-that seeks to inspire young people, using their preferred medium. It provides examples of the wide range of contributions that scientists and engineers make to their everyday lives, information on careers, role models that they can identify with and examples of qualification pathways to engineering careers.

2.7 The science and engineering community, under the leadership of Sir Anthony Cleaver, Chairman of the ETB and Sir Tom McKillop, President of the Science Council, is joining with Government, charitable trusts and industry to create a UK celebration of science and engineering to be held in London in March 2009. This will incorporate the National Science Competition, announced in this year's Budget.

2.8 The influence of engineers extends beyond engineering occupations. Those educated and trained as engineers work across a wide range of sectors and play an extensive role in the UK economy, including at Senior Management level in FTSE 100 companies, where their skills are valued in non-engineering applications.[42]

Recommendation

Greater effective coordination is needed on the multiplicity of promotional and awareness-raising activities that are currently undertaken by a wide range of public, private and professional organisations. While many of these interventions and initiatives are excellent and have national coverage, better coordination would maximise impact and improve the consistency of messaging.

The recent example shown by the Chief Executives of various engineering outreach organisations[43] to better coordinate their activities and to work in partnership should be continued and supported by Government funding within an umbrella programme.

3. THE ROLE OF ENGINEERING AND ENGINEERS IN UK'S INNOVATION DRIVE

3.1 The Knowledge-Based Economy Needed for the UK's Continued Economic Success demands higher-end skills and relentless innovation. The UK is well placed to do this, with a science base second only to the US[44] and world-leading capital markets within the City of London. Despite this potentially winning combination, we are not yet as successful as many of our competitor nations at exploiting these assets, through innovation, in order to create large, globally competitive and sustainable enterprises. While the UK's record on numbers of start-up companies may be improving,[45] we have not been as successful as other economies at growing these companies or at producing a critical mass of "serial innovators" (something successfully achieved in the US).

3.2 The ETB's reports on innovation and wealth creation from SET[46] made a number of recommendations on action that could be taken by Government, business and financial institutions to help realise this potential. Some of these recommendations have been implemented,[47] but more could be done to help unlock the opportunities our science-base and capital markets present.

3.3 One of these reports, SET and the City, examined UK venture capital and found that in comparison to the US, UK venture capital is still relatively small in scale. For UK venture capital, there are clearly difficulties posed by poor returns in the technology sector since 2000, but there have been encouraging recent signs of improvement. Early stage technology businesses clearly need to deliver better performance, but institutions should consider whether they could move prudently to a more US model of funding for venture capital.

3.4 We applaud the establishment of the Technology Strategy Board (TSB)-a model recommended in our report. We encourage the TSB and the Government to ensure that the board remains strategic, focused on facilitating and brokering and does not simply evolve into another grant awarding body.

Recommendations

All investors should be encouraged to fund venture capital by the use of appropriate tax incentives.

The TSB's funding should be doubled over the next five years.

4. THE STATE OF THE ENGINEERING SKILLS BASE IN THE UK, INCLUDING THE SUPPLY OF ENGINEERS AND ISSUES OF DIVERSITY (FOR EXAMPLE, GENDER AND AGE PROFILE)

4.1 Whilst qualifications are widely used as a proxy for skills, the rapidly changing pace of technology and the skills needs of UK economy mean that lifelong learning is an essential component of up-skilling. An award of a qualification is an important first step in demonstrating proficiency but it is the application of skills that creates value.

4.2 The recent ETB/Royal Academy of Engineering report[48] on public attitudes to engineers and engineering showed that only 7% of 16-19 year olds felt they were quite knowledgeable about engineering as a profession and just 5% felt very well informed about the work of engineers. 16-19 year olds were also likely to see engineering as more "manual", "structured" and "serious". This obviously has implications for attracting young people into careers in engineering, and could therefore undermine our ability to meet our future skills requirements.

4.3 Employers' requirements

Employer skills surveys[49] demonstrate that a substantial minority of engineering employers are experiencing difficulty recruiting appropriately skilled staff.

4.4 A consultation of the ETB's Corporate Members[50] indicated that they had hard-to-fill vacancies in their organisations and that this was primarily due to a mixture of applicants for vacancies being of insufficient quality and volume. Lack of skills and appropriate work experience were the most often cited reasons, with suitable qualifications, attitudes and motivation also being mentioned by some as lacking.

4.5 One respondent commented that "|high level skills involving the use and understanding of maths and physics-some candidates have apparently sound qualifications but cannot apply their skills to new problems.", adding that "Many of the skills|can be worked on once in employment. The basic understanding of maths and physics is not so easy to pick up later and must be the priority."

4.6 Another cited the problem of high technology small companies that hire one or two graduates a year but cannot carry the overhead of a two-year training programme before graduates make a full contribution to the company.

4.7 The skills that engineers and technicians will need more of in the future include: technical, team working and problem solving skills. Communications, planning and organisational, numeracy and literacy skills also rated highly.

4.8 Destination data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) has shown that six months after graduating just over 3% of UK-domiciled civil engineering students are unemployed, whereas the figure for other engineering disciplines is typically in the range of 8-10%.

4.9 Exporting skills

The majority of full-time postgraduate engineering students at UK HEIs are domiciled outside the EU. Even among full-time engineering first degree students as many as a quarter of Chemical, Process and Energy Engineering undergraduates, for example, are from outside the EU. Although schemes exist to allow non-EEA graduates to work in the UK, this does raise issues about the "export" of skills to competitor nations and the balance of UK and foreign domiciled students on engineering courses.

4.10 The ETB carried out a study[51] in collaboration with the Engineering Professors Council (EPC) which highlighted a potential imbalance in the make-up of student cohorts resulting from the high numbers of overseas students studying engineering at UK HEIs. The study indicated that the quality of student experience may be affected by such imbalances.

4.11 Demographic issues

According to the population projections,[52] the number of 16-year-olds has peaked in 2007 at 802,000 and is forecast to fall each year to a low point of 671,000 by 2017-a decline 16% for the annual cohort over the next ten years.

4.12 Women

Around one-in-seven engineering and technology students in UK higher education are female-a figure which has remained static in recent years, although twice the figure of twenty-five years ago.[53]

4.13 The ETB particularly welcomes the Women and Work Sector Pathways Initiative, which aims to test new recruitment and career pathways for up to 10,000 women across nine different sectors throughout England[54]-and which it was recently announced will receive an additional £5 million. The ETB believes that this initiative will help to overcome perceived obstacles to increasing female participation in engineering.

4.14 The ETB is also a core supporter of the WISE campaign[55] (Women into Science, Engineering and Construction) which collaborates with industry and education to encourage UK girls of school age to value and pursue STEM or construction related courses in school or college and related careers.

4.15 Technician and vocational level

Engineers and technicians who have followed the vocational route into engineering are the bedrock on which the whole sector depends for the application of its activities, innovation and R&D. Probably the most significant route into engineering is the Apprenticeship and the ETB is concerned at the significant fall in engineering Apprenticeship volumes-about 25% over the last three years.[56] The Leitch Review of Skills[57] recognised the vital contribution of the FE sector to up-skilling and raising productivity.

4.16 The ETB welcomes the establishment of National Skills Academies in manufacturing, construction, nuclear, and process industries and strongly supports the work of the Sector Skills Councils in meeting the demand for vocationally qualified employees reflecting the needs of employers.

Recommendations

Improved links between employers and education providers are needed to ensure that education providers better understand employers' skills requirements, specifically on the content and design of the engineering diploma. A recent initiative at Warwick University in automotive technology is a good example of business and academia working together to create a course that delivers the skills that employers need.

The recent focus on boosting number of apprenticeships, including adult apprenticeships, should be scaled up.

Diversity should be encouraged, including gender, BMEs, returners etc. The work of the various organisations which encourage diversity need to be better coordinated and integrated with other broader programmes.

A comprehensive review is needed of the real cost of producing engineering graduates, particularly the provision of practical training and laboratory work.

A centralised FE statistical unit (like HESA) should be established and examine uptake and progression within strategically important areas for FE.

5. THE IMPORTANCE OF ENGINEERING TO R&D AND THE CONTRIBUTION OF R&D TO ENGINEERING

5.1 The Lisbon Agenda[58] is intended as a strategic response to address the low productivity and stagnation of economic growth across the EU. An EU target spending on research and development was set at over 3% of EU GDP. The provision of intermediate and high level STEM Skills for the UK Science, Engineering and Technology sector is one of the key challenges recognised within the Lisbon Agenda.

5.2 A recent report[59] estimated that to achieve the level of R&D activity envisaged in the 3% target, an extra 500,000 graduate researchers would need to be produced across the EU. For the UK to increase its R&D expenditure by 40% there will need to be a 40% increase in employment in the SET sector.

5.3 The initial targets set out in the Lisbon Agenda were too ambitious and it seems unlikely that the UK will achieve its 2.5% target of R&D spend of GDP by 2010. Therefore, there needs to be far greater incentives for industry to invest in R&D. The TSB will help the UK close in on its 2.5% target. However, the £190m annual budget of the TSB should be considered in the context of the £9 billion shortfall in R&D spending seen in 2004.

5.4 The huge potential of public procurement as a means of stimulating research and development has been recognised but is yet to be realised.

Recommendation

We welcome the announcement in this year's Budget of support for innovation, particularly through public procurement and specifically for SMEs. We would welcome a review of the impact of procurement on the performance of technology businesses.

6. THE ROLES OF INDUSTRY, UNIVERSITIES, PROFESSIONAL BODIES, GOVERNMENT, UNIONS AND OTHERS IN PROMOTING ENGINEERING SKILLS AND THE FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF CAREERS IN ENGINEERING

6.1 All these bodies engage in activities to promote engineering skills and careers and progress has been made in improving and joining up these initiatives to prevent duplication of effort and inconsistency. Organisations that run successful initiatives should be supported to increase their reach.

6.2 In order to promote engineering skills and careers to young people, more should be done address them via their preferred medium of communication ie the internet, as well as to promote an inspiring message alluding to a modern vision of engineering. The ETB aims to do this with its update of the scenta portal and the enginuity[60] (engineering careers information) website, and with the Science Council's Futuremorph careers from science website.

6.3 University

Should provide our future engineers who are fit for purpose and come with the broad foundation of education and skills which are needed for careers in engineering and be adequately funded to do so.

6.4 Industry

Evidence from the ETB's Business and Industry (B&I) Panel suggests that there is wide recognition that engineering employers have a key role in initial and continuous professional development, promoting engineering careers, up-skilling, training and providing awards to recognise success[61].

6.5 The Panel sees Government's key role as promoting qualifications, professional engineering institutions' role as supporting professional development, promoting careers in engineering and engaging with their membership to ascertain their views. Further Education colleges and private training providers are recognised as being key players in the provision of training courses[62].

6.6 Professional institutions should continue to:

- Provide like-minded professionals with "knowledge networks".

- Set and maintain professional standards, in association with ECuk.

- Define chartered status; provide a framework for Initial Professional Development (IPD) including defining the skills needed eg project management.

6.7 GOVERNMENT

In addition to the earlier recommendations, we:

- Applaud the Government's increased commitment to lifelong learning.

- Recommend a review of the way Government sets targets for the LSC to deliver the upskilling the UK requires.

March 2008

39 Public Attitudes to and Perceptions of Engineering and Engineers, the ETB and the Royal Academy of Engineering, 2007 http://www.etechb.co.uk/_db/_documents/Public_Attitudes_to_and_Perceptions_of_Engineering_and_Engineers_2007.pdf ) Back

40 See footnote 14. Back

41 www.scenta.co.uk Back