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Oleh
Experts tell us that there are a variety of things that will help. For example, we
need to encourage young girls to develop their spatial skills, laying the foundation
for further scientific exploration as they grow. We also need to find ways to help
women feel less alone as they help us build a more inclusive engineering
community. This includes hosting female-focused engineering interest groups on
campuses and in workplaces, and highlighting engineering role models who
reflect the true diversity of our population. All of these things are important, but
one of the simplest and most effective things we can do differently is something as
simple as richer storytelling. Most people have a very limited understanding of
what engineers do – and we engineers don’t do a good job of expanding that view.
Commentators agree that demand for engineers will rise exponentially over the
next decade as our lives are increasingly driven by new technology and the
pressure for renewable energy grows. According to Engineering UK, the sector
will need to recruit 2.2million candidates over the next five to 10 years to meet the
demand. That amounts to a 40% increase, primarily driven by sector growth. An
ageing engineering workforce is also increasing the pressure on recruitment.
Research from Roevin Engineering Recruitment suggests that 92% of hiring
managers expect their company to have a higher demand for engineers over the
next five years, compared to any time previously. Given this pressure to find
skilled professionals, the UK cannot afford to be missing out on the talent on offer
in half of the population; women must make up a significant proportion of the
candidate pool as these jobs are filled. There is no reason why women should not
excel in the sector. Year after year, we see young women matching or even
outclassing their male peers in maths and science exams – both fundamental
technical skills for an engineer. More and more, the industry is telling us they
need engineers who not only have proficient technical capability, but also good
communications skills to work effectively in a team and explain their work to key
stakeholders. Here too, women have strong skills.
An important aspect of our improved statistics is not just recruiting but retention.
More than 80 first-year mechanical engineering students (more than half of whom
are female) have participated in the first-year research program over the past three
years. Our most recent surveys indicate that half of the inaugural class continued
to participate in undergraduate research after the program ended. Other retention
efforts supported by our Women in Engineering Program include women’s groups
in specific engineering departments and research projects for second-year
students, as well as the first-years. More than 95 percent of incoming female
mechanical engineering students in the fall of 2014 continued to study mechanical
engineering in the fall of 2015, the most recent year for which data are available.
We also need to revisit our curriculum frequently to remove as many barriers to
student progress as possible. For example, experts tell us that these early classes
need to incorporate as many real-life and everyday engineering examples as
possible to continue to encourage students to stick with challenging introductory
classes as they work toward broader and more compelling engineering lessons.
Engineering is not the only profession that benefits from a nuanced story. The
value of a medical degree is as much about saved lives and improved health as
about the organic chemistry class along the way. The value of an education degree
is as much about the young lives transformed by excellent teaching as the
impossibly difficult history class along the way. And the value of an engineering
degree is as much about empowering a young engineer to make our engineered
world a better place as the calculus class that kept her up late every night. We
need to support and encourage students to build the math, science and engineering
skills they need to be successful engineers, but we also need to help them develop
a broader understanding of those skills as tools for building a better engineered
world. When we begin to tell multifaceted stories like these, then we find that a
much larger and more diverse set of students identify themselves as engineers.
Today's engineers also believe that careers advisors and parents sometimes act as
barriers against the career choice, instead of encouraging our young people into a
thriving sector. This points to a broader challenge – there is too little recognition
for the exciting experiences and bright job prospects on offer in engineering. The
industry is now beginning to tackle this reputational challenge seriously and boost
its female appeal. More companies are running apprenticeship schemes
specifically targeting women. There are new support networks that bring together
female engineers who are already working in the profession so they can share
their experiences – both with each other and the next generation.
So every year we get out our microscope and find a whole bunch of women
engineers with fabulous, powerful jobs.