July 2019

| 40 | July 2019 www.smartmachinesandfactories.com | PRIMARY ENGINEER | The need to identify engineers in the making W hen it comes to inspiring the next generation in all things engineering, there is no one better positioned to tell the story of how UK Plc is shaking the very core of the educational sector, than Dr Susan Scurlock, MBE. Susan has been working tirelessly with a superb team at Primary Engineer since 2005 to engage children as young as 3 to identify their inner-engineer. She has also carefully crafted teacher training programmes that help to identify and nurture latent engineering skills. Fifteen years on she is now embarking in a more formal direction with the creation of two professional engineering institutions, recognisable in structure to the professional institutions we know and love. But, these institutions are special in a way that no one would expect. They are for Primary and Secondary School Children.   The new Institutions have been welcomed by Professor John Perkins, CBE FREng, author of The Perkins Review who argued in 2013 that substantially increasing the number of engineers would help the UK economy. Primary Engineer is delivering on that promise. Susan explains: “In May 2019 we launched two institutions – both with the specific objective of helping children and young adults to develop skills, mindsets and competences related to engineering and the wider world of work. These institutions increase pupils’ employability and broaden their career aspirations through collaboration with industry, the STEM community, and parents.” Using an online portal, the institutions work with teachers to create, access and evaluate projects while keeping track of the skills that their school delivers. The software also provides the capability for teachers to manage pupils’ pathways to the institution’s certification processes thereby showcasing to industry and further education the pupil’s aptitude for transferrable skills which in turn will increase their employability.  Professor Perkins said at the launch: “The Institutions will provide the framework for bringing together STEM initiatives and education into a single, cohesive journey for children that will track and celebrate their progress as they move through the education system. Too often, young people’s experience of STEM related activities, either as part of the curriculum in schools, or through outreach by industry or voluntary organisations, feels patchy and a little random. The Institutions are designed to provide a coherent structure to help overcome this problem.” With the UK facing a skills crisis across many sectors, forming a steady bedrock of professional skills formulated around engineering can only be a good thing. It is widely recognised that engineering skills are highly transferable and therefore can underpin a wide range of career paths and destinations. The importance of encouraging the next generation of engineers, data scientists, and other professions from a young age has never been more acute. Moreover, in an age of transformation that will have a dramatic effect on the future job market, the skills that best serve the future workforce are those which require a project-based skills approach, including problem-finding, It’s 2019 and we need more engineers - that’s a fact. To be more precise we need 124,000 engineers and technicians with core engineering skills and personnel to satisfy the 79,000 new roles created in engineering per year. That’s 203,000 people with Level 3+ engineering skills per year to meet demand through to 2024. But where will we get them from? What we need is engineers in the making.