This year’s A-Level and GCSE results highlight the disappointingly low numbers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students coming through the mainstream school system.
While last month’s GCSE results show a slight increase in participation, there has been a worrying decline in student numbers across most STEM subjects at A-Level since 2015.
Richard Robinson - infrastructure executive at AECOM
The marginal average annual increases in students gaining both qualifications over recent years are far short of what the UK needs to remain globally competitive. Certainly it will bring no meaningful improvement to the country’s engineering skills shortage.
An Engineering UK report calculated that the UK needs to recruit an average of 182,000 workers with engineering skills every year between 2012 and 2022, but has an annual shortfall of 69,000.
The school system provides an essential pipeline of talent for industry, so encouraging more students to take STEM GCSEs and A-Levels will be key to tackling this skills gap.
It’s therefore more important than ever for industry, government and education providers to pull together and instill a better appreciation for STEM careers among students. A coordinated promotional campaign could go a long way towards attracting more young people into STEM-related professions.
As an industry, we must become smarter at tapping into the engineers of the future. Part of the problem is stubborn stereotypes about engineering, with many young people not aware of the diverse and exciting career paths opened up by STEM qualifications. Worryingly, female students turn away from STEM subjects post-GCSE at a much higher rate than their male counterparts.
Changing the way STEM subjects and related careers are presented to female students from a young age would help increase the numbers choosing to enter technical professions.
Encouragingly, there are already a number of initiatives that are helping to encourage young people to consider a career in STEM-related professions.
The STEM Ambassador Programme, for example, organises volunteers to go into schools to tell children about careers in engineering and other technical disciplines using creative, practical exercises in problem-solving.
Through this scheme and its own initiatives, AECOM volunteers regularly visit schools to help change pupils’ perceptions of what an engineer does.
Outreach programmes with schools are certainly an effective way to raise the profile of STEM-related professions as a rewarding career choice. But more needs to be done on a coordinated, large-scale if industry is to continue to build capacity so that it has the right skills in place to deliver the UK’s ambitious pipeline of infrastructure projects.
There must be greater focus on encouraging more students to study STEM subjects if any meaningful improvement is to be made to the UK’s engineering skills shortage.
Richard Robinson is chief executive – civil infrastructure, Europe, Middle East, India and Africa, at AECOM
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