Attracting More Entrants into Engineering: The UK Perspective

Despite the long history of engineering and its contribution to the prosperity of the country, engineers have never been held in high esteem in the UK. The term ´engineer´ is used very loosely, frequently describing technicians, mechanics or even semi-skilled engineering workers. Consequently, the recruitment of students into university engineering courses has never been particularly easy. The problem has been exacerbated by the lack of popularity of mathematics and science subjects at A level. Indeed, engineering shares with other STEM2 subjects the perception of being ´difficult´ and ´boring´.