Graduates 'not pursuing' engineering

Chief among the issues outlined in the ‘Pathways to success in engineering degrees and careers’ report is the low number of graduates pursuing careers in engineering.

The report suggests that less than 40% of students hold full-time engineering jobs six months after leaving university.

We need to work harder to show engineering students the exciting career opportunities on offer

RAE director Rhys Morgan

Rhys Morgan, director or engineering and education at the RAE, said many engineering graduates fail to choose careers in engineering because of a lack of employer visibility on campus.

“We need to work harder to show engineering students the exciting career opportunities on offer to them if they take up careers in the subject they chose,” Morgan said.

Process Engineering has previously spoken to one such engineering graduate who felt engineering firms lacked a strong enough presence at university job fairs.

Chisom Orji, who studied chemical engineering, economics and management at Oxford University, and who is currently employed as an investment banking analyst, said the banks and finance companies are always strongly represented at careers events at universities.

Engineering graduates moving into other sectors such as banking and finance is a major concern for industry.

‘Leaky pipeline’

Earlier this month, higher education institution UCAS released figures that suggest an increasing number of people are applying to study engineering at university.

According to UCAS, applications increased by 7% on the previous year for all domiciles, and up by 9% for UK applicants.

However, more applicants rarely convert into more engineers.

According to Verity O’Keefe, senior employment and skills policy advisor at manufacturing trade body EEF, it is no secret that the engineering pipeline is fraught with leaks.

“We must fix the ‘leaky’ engineering pipeline to ensure that today’s applicants will become tomorrow’s skilled engineers,” O’Keefe said.