15th January 2018

Supporting the Year of Engineering campaign

The Year of Engineering launches this week as a cross-government campaign to tackle the engineering skills gap and widen the pool of young people who join the profession.

At Thomasons we have long recognised the importance of encouraging young people to consider civil and structural engineering as a career. Across our UK offices, we offer work experience and talks to students in schools, colleges and universities to raise awareness of the wide range of interesting opportunities in our sector.

We have close links with several professional institutions, notably the Institution of Structural Engineers, and work with regional IStructE branches to support their activities in this area.

Nick Russell, Director at Thomasons Guildford, takes a special interest in promoting engineering to young people; this was a focus during his year of tenure as President of the IStructE and continues in his current role as Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey. He lectures widely on issues affecting professional development, including the skills shortage.

He recently shared some of his ideas for addressing the serious shortage of engineers in an online blog for Building, suggesting that universities should widen entrance requirements for engineering degree courses and that universities and employers should work more closely together to tailor degree courses to the needs of the workplace.

Research suggests that potential career choices are fixed at a young age and that there is a strong gender divide, which means that it is also important to capture children’s interest early, even at primary school level. This is another aspect that Thomasons is considering as part of our professional development programme.

We look forward to supporting new initiatives during the Year of Engineering, and as an ongoing part of our business.