Look forward

In the two years that I have been editing this fine magazine, the most commonly recurring theme has been the lack of engineering skills in this country.

It is a subject that pops up in almost every issue, and is featured in this month’s news pages with the alarming statistic that the UK has the lowest proportion of female engineers in Europe.

There are myriad cultural and financial reasons why engineering both fails to appeal to young people, and then often fails to compete with other fields such as finance among those who do study it at degree level.

Tell young people that they can be part of a global movement for change, then stand back as they flood through your doors

However, here is my one insight from my time spent as editor of Process Engineering (which is sadly coming to an end): there is an alarming tendency among some engineers to look backwards.

This is perhaps a gross generalisation, coming as it does largely from reading the comments posted by our readers.

But there is a definite attitude among some that harks back to the “good old days” of British industry.

Just exactly when were these days? Thatcher’s destruction of British industry in the eighties? Or the decade of strikes and blackouts (AKA the 1970s)? Or perhaps we’re harking all the way back to the industrial revolution?

My point is that it is never attractive to look backwards.

To say that young people now aren’t interested in technical disciplines simply isn’t true…they just want to work in a forward-looking culture.

This is why so many young people want to be coders. They see companies like Google and Apple as the brands that are creating the future.

The chaotic world of an internet start-up is exciting and, most importantly, offers young people the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

This idea of purpose is critical for the success of a business, or in this case, a profession.

And that’s the point: if engineering is to recruit the kinds of number that this country’s economy and infrastructure so desperately need, then it must rebrand itself.

Engineering should no longer be selling itself as a profession, but as a movement.

Tell young people that they can be part of a global movement for change, then stand back as they flood through your doors.