Memorandum 52
Submission from the WISE Campaign
1. EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
1.1 Questions addressed
This response addresses the third and the fifth
terms of reference, which are:
- 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).
- the roles of industry, universities, professional
bodies, Government, unions and others in promoting engineering
skills and the formation and development of careers in engineering.
1.2 Main arguments
WISE promotes science engineering and construction
as careers for schoolgirls, and is concerned that the diversity
profile of engineering students and employees in the UK is not
changing by market forces alone. At present 85% of engineering
undergraduates are male, as are 93% of engineering apprentices[227].
The answer is to this failure to achieve a more diverse workforce
is to challenge traditional approaches to encouraging young people
into engineering and so move from the current low state of recruitment
of girls. Enhancement and enrichment activities for schoolchildren
are encouraging a new generation, but still have potential to
improve the proportion of girls they engage.
1.3 Key recommendations
WISE recommends that:
- government recognises its role in promoting
positive change in the diversity profile of students studying
or training in engineering at all levels to contribute to subsequent
diversity in the workforce;
- agencies delivering activities to promote
engineering recognise the value of girls-only initiatives;
- mixed gender enhancement and enrichment
activities accept the challenge of delivering equitably to girls;
- funders of all STEM enhancement and enrichment
activities ensure that outcomes, as opposed to outputs, are tracked
to ensure value for money for girls;
- agencies delivering enhancement and enrichment
activities positively embrace innovation and non-traditional approaches;
and
- the Training and Development Agency's pilot
campaign to recruit STEM undergraduates into schools ensures that
the nationwide roll-out of its scheme attracts a high proportion
of young women.
1.4 The WISE mission
The WISE Campaign 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 move on into related careers. WISE is hosted by the Engineering
and Technology Board, and funded by:
- The Engineering and Technology Board
- The Royal Academy of Engineering
- UK Resource Centre for Women in SET
2. THE STATE
OF ENGINEERING
SKILLS AND
DIVERSITY
2.1 Why diversity?
There is a strong business case for diversity.
Diversity policies can resolve labour shortages by recruiting
and retaining high quality staff, they enhance a company's reputation
and standing in the local community, and lead to improvements
in their capacity to create and innovate[228].
In addition there is the demographic imperative resulting from
the downturn in the birth-rate[229].
2.2 Women in engineering
The last 30 years have seen great strides forward
in opening up erstwhile male-only careers to women viz.
accountancy, law and general practice doctors. In engineering,
although there has been a doubling in the number of women undergraduates
since 1984, there are still only 15% female undergraduate engineers
and 3% female apprentices. This is a major diversity issue, which
affects the basic supply of skills, the potential for innovation
in the sector and the culture of the workplace.
2.3 Traditional work practices
Our society's culture is such that the childbirth/rearing
process is seen as a halt to productive work (rather than upskilling
in multi-tasking, communications and negotiating). Many SMEs find
the financial burden difficult, and do not embrace the idea of
more young women in the workforce. Many young women who do join
engineering companies find that it difficult to persuade their
employers to think laterally about a standard 40 hour week, and
so leave after childbirth. Few have such good statistics as those
published by Openreach who see 99% of their female workforce return
after maternity leave.
2.4 How this affects girls' choices
Girls from a young age see the engineering profession
define itself in these terms of its heritage of maleness, and
most do not even consider engineering as a possible future for
them. Those who are proficient in science and mathematics (and
girls do better in these subjects than boys at GCSE) can find
themselves moving "naturally" on into medicine and accountancy,
or even out of the area altogether. And competent girls who struggle
with these subjects because of inadequate support do not even
consider continuing with them beyond 16. So the gender profile
of UK's engineering companies will not change in the foreseeable
future merely by doing more of the same in terms of intervention
in the schools, colleges and universities.
2.5 Government responsibility
The STEM programme has equality and diversity
clearly articulated at the top of its agenda, but there is no
subsequent strategy for delivery, or ring-fenced funding. At present
the Government policy representatives advocate the better training
of teachers and careers advisors, which they state will automatically
lead to the disappearance of gender disparity issues. There is
no evidence to support this position.
2.6 The need for a coordinated strategy
DIUS has committed to funding the UK Resource
Centre for Women in SET for the next three years, and UKRC (who
also sponsor WISE) are in turn contributing valuably to a number
of initiatives such as the London Engineering Project. But there
does not appear to be any coordinated strategy and funding to
ensure an increase in the number of young women coming into STEM
careers.
Recommendation 1: that
- government recognises its role in promoting
positive change in the diversity profile of students studying
or training in engineering at all levels to contribute to subsequent
diversity in the workforce.
3. PROMOTING
ENGINEERING CAREERS
3.1 Do we still need to provide for girls-only?
It has been argued that in the twenty-first
century there is no need for courses devoted totally to girls,
who have to live in the real world, and must learn in that context.
But take the experience of a girl in a mixed school who has an
interest in engineering: she will know from her peers, her teachers
and her careers advisor that she is considering a career which
is unusual for women. She then goes on a mixed course/recruitment
event where there is a majority of boys, and she will have this
sense of her own peculiarity reinforced. However, on a single
sex course, she can be normal again.
3.2 Research into how girls value girls-only
courses
WISE has been investigating the value of girls-only
courses by interviewing the participants from the last 20 years
from the Insight course for year 12 girls (17-year-olds). When
asked generally what they thought of the course and found valuable
attendees said that they had experienced a good introduction to
engineering, a useful taster of university life and that it had
helped them with their choice of course and career. However, more
in depth questioning revealed that the single-sex nature of the
course did indeed provide them with a far richer experience: they
engaged more with role models, had more hands-on experience, felt
more at ease asking questions, and, perhaps most importantly,
felt less of an outsider as a girl studying science. WISE believes
in the value of these courses to ensure there is alternative model
for influencing girls, whilst at the same time mainstreaming effective
engagement with girls into mixed-gender interventions.
Recommendation 2: that
- agencies delivering activities to promote
engineering recognise the value of girls-only initiatives.
3.3 Mixed-gender interventions
There are a large number of mixed gender enhancement
and enrichment activities provided by a number of organisations,
from major corporations to small charities. Many of these find
a proportion of 25% girl participants to be acceptable as it is,
after all, larger than the percentage of women in FE, HE or industry.
However work undertaken by the London Engineering Project[230]
has demonstrated that it is entirely possible to have an even
representation of boys and girls, and other initiatives should
accept the challenge to demonstrate their equitable investment
in girls.
3.4 Equitable investment in girls
"Gender neutral" initiatives who promote
themselves to both boys and girls, but end up delivering to boys
on a ratio of three or four to one could consider whether they
are investing well in the future. The need for diversity in the
workforce is well documented elsewhere, and funds that flow more
in the direction of boys than girls merely maintain the status
quo. If an initiative is spending more on boys than girls "because
we can't get the girls to sign up", this is a strong indicator
that customer relations and recruitment messages are not effective
across the piece, and money spent on attracting more girls would
balance the scorecard from the customer perspective.
Recommendation 3: that
- mixed gender enhancement and enrichment
activities accept the challenge of delivering equitably to girls.
3.5 Tracking positive outcomes to interventions
There appears to be little evidence as to whether
interventions that deliver a one-off experience for students,
then move on to the next cohort, have any value in the long term.
An effective intervention should not only encourage more girls
into engineering study and careers (a positive outcome), but would
also be able to document these outcomes in the longer term. No
doubt some agencies can demonstrate this type of indicator of
success, but we are not aware of any widespread use of robust
techniques on either mixed gender or single sex interventions.
Funders may wish to gather these figures as evidence of value
for money, and efficacy, for girls.
Recommendation 4: that
- funders of all STEM enhancement and enrichment
activities ensure that outcomes, as opposed to outputs, are tracked
to ensure value for money for girls.
4. INNOVATION
AS A
WAY FORWARD
4.1 New approaches in the workplace
Innovation does not just mean creating innovative
commercial products and services: innovation which challenges
traditional approaches must be core to the recruitment and retention
of staff, both male and female, to ensure the UK can stand alongside
other emerging economies that are not restricted by legacy systems
and cultures. "We can do this by investing in people and
knowledge, unlocking talent at all levels, John Denham[231]".
4.2 A new approach to interventions for schoolgirls
WISE has recently won funding from the LSC for
a major piece of work that looks in detail at the experience of
single sex promotional interventions. Working with a large number
of partners, primarily the Royal Navy, who have opened up their
engineering school to the project, WISE will develop a series
of large scale, hands-on, engineering activities to guide the
girls through their year 11 studies and help them make informed
choices about engineering diplomas and apprenticeships.
4.3 Learning through teaching
The key to this project is that the girls, having
participated in a day's activities, then redesign the day for
the next cohort and participate as guides on the next event, then
take the learning back into their own schools. This active involvement
in learning, planning and teaching is an innovative step forward
based on the Royal Navy's mantra of "teach to learn".
4.4 Collaborative employer engagement
In addition to this innovative approach, local
industry will participate in a self-sustaining consortium to encourage
girls into engineering as a career, rather than into their particular
companies. This plays to the strength of collaboration and partnership
which is more powerful than competition in many circumstances[232].
Recommendation 5: that
- agencies delivering enhancement and enrichment
activities positively embrace innovation and non-traditional approaches.
4.5 Addressing the lack of physics and maths
teachers in schools
WISE supports the initiatives to employ undergraduates
as teaching assistants in these hard to resource STEM areas, such
as the Student Associates Scheme run by TDA. The scheme brings
motivated, subject-qualified assistants into the classroom for
mainly group or one to one work. They act as role models and,
as a valuable addition, have a grasp of the career opportunities
available to those studying STEM subjects.[233]
However steps must be taken to ensure gender balance when this
initiative is rolled out nationwide, to ensure there is a positive
reinforcement to girls of their opportunities in entering STEM
careers.
Recommendation 6: that
- the Training and Development Agency's pilot
campaign to recruit STEM undergraduates into schools ensures that
the nationwide roll-out of its scheme attracts a high proportion
of young women.
March 2008
227 Engineering UK 2007, published by the Engineering
and Technology Board Back
228
The Business Case for Diversity: Good Practices in the Workplace,
European Commission: Directorate-General for Employment, Social
Affairs and Equal Opportunities, 2005 Back
229
ESRC, National Statistics Back
230
funded in the main by HEFCE, led by the Royal Academy of Engineering,
and delivered in partnership with London South Bank University,
African-Caribbean Network for Science and Technology (ACNST),
Aspire Aimhigher South East London, Cambridge-MIT Institute, EDF
Energy,,RWE Thames Water, STEMNET, STEM Centre for London, The
BA, The Brightside Trust, The Engineering Development Trust, The
Engineering Professor's Council, The Higher Education Subject
Centre, The Office of Science and Technology, The Smallpeice Trust,
The UK Resource Centre for Women in SET (UKRC), University College
London, University of Liverpool, University of Sussex, Young Engineers Back
231
Secretary of State for Science and Innovation, John Denham, in
a Written Ministerial Statement, 13 March 2008. Back
232
As Warren Buffet said to Bill Gates as he handed over the majority
of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Back
233
This is not the same as the Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme,
which aims to give student credit towards their degree and does
not pay Back
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