'Targeting SEND recruits could help plug engineering talent gap'

The industry group, working in collaboration with the Royal Society, cited latest statistics from its Science Education Tracke,r based on answers from more than 7,000 secondary school age students on their attitudes to STEM subjects.

While equal proportions (47%) of state school educated SEND and non-SEND youngsters said they had an interest in engineering, there was a clear difference when it came to technology and computing in particular.

Within those areas, 43% of SEND students favoured careers there – a proportion notably higher than the 37% of non-SEND respondents.

Overall, engineering jobs on offer are expected to grow 2.8% in the five years to 2030, leaving potentially large numbers of vacancies.

Engineering UK has previously said that tackling the low percentage of females in the industry would help solve much of the problem.

Similarly, it said, disabled young people are also under-represented, comprising 18% of all occupations, compared to just 14% in engineering related jobs.

EU employment gender gap lags in manufacturing: The employment gap between men and women in the European Union dropped by a third in the last 20 years, reveals recent Eurostat data.

However, the proportion of female engineers and scientists in the manufacturing sector is lagging behind service, warned Dr. Susanne Bieller, general secretary of the International Federation of Robotics.

“In [this] key industry for the global automation race, only 22.4% of engineers and scientists employed are women – this is less than half compared to services related jobs with 45.6%,” she stated.

Overall, though, employment in the European economy is booming, with the rate for the main 15-64 age bracket topping 71.7% – the highest level since 2005.