Call for £40m investment to realise UK’s net zero goal

This call is part of a wider call put forward by the National Engineering Policy Centre ^[1] to invest in a long-term STEM education strategy that will enable the UK to deliver on its ambitions around net zero and realise the government’s drive to build back better and ’level up’ across the UK in a post-Covid world.  

The government’s net zero strategy - Build Back Greener- confirms the need for several thousands of engineers to help the UK move towards a greener economy. For this to happen, the UK needs many more young people from all backgrounds to choose STEM and engineering careers.

The call for additional funding for careers provision was outlined in EngineeringUK’s recently published report ‘Securing the future’ in response to a survey with careers leaders that highlighted that ‘lack of funding for STEM careers provision’ affected schools’ and colleges’ ability to deliver STEM careers provision. The report recommends that part of the additional funding for STEM careers provision is focused on increasing diversity in the sector. Funding is also recommended for a dedicated STEM leader in each careers hub ^[2], whose role it would be to build schools’ STEM careers capacity by supporting and facilitating joint careers activities with employers, including work experience.

New research by EngineeringUK, which is yet to be published and is based on a survey with STEM secondary school teachers, confirms that there is crisis in funding for STEM careers provision in schools and colleges in England.

Beatrice Barleon, head of Policy and Public Affairs at EngineeringUK, said: “Ensuring that we have the number and diversity of future engineers to achieve the government’s ambitions around net zero and economic growth requires government to develop a well-funded STEM education strategy with careers provision at the heart of it.

“Our recent report ‘Securing the future’ highlighted that careers provision is still underfunded, limiting what schools can offer to young people. This needs to change.

“We want to see the government use the 2021 Comprehensive Spending Review to plug that gap and invest an additional £40m annually on supporting schools and colleges in England to improve careers provision to enable more young people to understand the opportunities available in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) careers.

“This small investment in the context of the wider schools’ budget, will ensure that schools have the capacity to fulfil their statutory duties in relation to careers provision in a meaningful way and help inspire the next generation of engineers. This is not only vital for the future of young people and for levelling up, but also for the economic success of this country.”

^[1] The National Engineering Policy Centre connects policy makers with critical engineering expertise to inform and respond to policy issues of national importance, giving policymakers a route to advice from across the whole profession, and the profession a unified voice on shared challenges.  

The Centre is an ambitious partnership, led by the Royal Academy of Engineering, between 43 different UK engineering organisations, including EngineeringUK, representing 450,000 engineers. 

‘Engineering a resilient and sustainable future’, The National Engineering Policy Centre’s submission to the 2020 Spending Review is available online at www.raeng.org.uk/publications/reports/engineering-a-resilient-and-sustainable-future

^[2] Careers hubs were first stipulated in the careers strategy and associated guidance and have over the last three years become central to the way careers provision is delivered in England. There are 20 to 40 secondary schools and colleges in each hub, within a specific Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) area. They work together to deliver the Gatsby benchmarks. Careers hubs have access to some funding, including bursaries for schools and colleges to train careers leaders and a central hub fund equivalent to £1,000 per education provider. They also each have a hub lead to help coordinate activities. There are currently careers hubs across approximately 32 LEP areas around the country covering around 2,000 secondary schools, or 45% of all secondary schools in the state sector in England and the government have said that they would continue with roll out but have not provided a clear timeline as to when they want to achieve this by. EngineeringUK and partners on the ‘Securing the future’ report have asked government that careers hubs are rapidly expanded to cover all secondary schools in England by mid-2022.