The Universe of Engineering
Engineers work to devise the solutions to many of today’s global challenges, including clean, affordable energy, ensuring safe and resilient infrastructure, supporting advanced healthcare, mitigating the effects of climate change and keeping people connected in an increasingly digitised world.
Read more about how engineering skills support the wider economy in The Universe of Engineering, a report put together by Engineering the Future, the alliance of the 36 professional engineering institutions, EngineeringUK, the Engineering Council and the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Engineering Skills for the Future
Given the centrality of engineering to Global Challenges we are work both to promote the value of engineering skills throughout the wider workforce (see our Engineers for Teachers) and to ensure that the engineering workforce is equipped with the skills to work in both the current context and the future industry.
This includes nurturing practical skills and creativity, alongside the development of enabling skills such as complex problem solving and critical thinking and professional behaviours such as ethical consideration and environmental awareness, increasingly identified as critical by employers.
The increasing digitalisation of all aspects of engineering requires the up-skilling and re-skilling of engineers and technicians. To maximise productivity gains, the engineering workforce must be fully capable of exploiting technological advances.
We must ensure we are future proofing our education and skills system by preparing people for these changes. This also means a much greater focus is needed on the existing engineering workforce and their capacity to engage with and further develop these technological advances. The majority of the engineers and technicians of 2030 have already left the education system so their skills must be updated and improved through workplace learning and adult skills systems.
UK industry, the engineering profession and government need a major shift in their collective commitment to supporting lifelong learning and professional development to ensure workers continue to develop new skills in an increasingly technology-driven world.
Read more in the Education for Engineering (E4E) report on Engineering Skills for the Future, which revisits the landmark 2013 Perkins Review and assesses our progress from there.
