Inspiring the Engineers of Tomorrow

We have a proud history of training apprentices and developing the next generation of engineers – and that means we also work hard to promote careers in engineering and inspire the engineers of tomorrow.

Our industry is facing a skills shortage and research shows that many young people aged 11 to 19 don’t know much about what engineers do or the many career opportunities it provides - and we want to change that. 

Our Inspire schools’ engagement programme has been running for over five years, it provides students with a combination of practical experience, classroom engineering challenges, and the opportunity to meet some of our engineers and engineering apprentices.  We’ve engaged with nearly 10,000 students across the UK through school workshops, site visits, and work experience weeks. Of those students engaged, a huge majority reported an increase in their knowledge regarding engineering, and around two-thirds stated they were more interested in a career in STEM following our engagement.

In the wake of COVID-19 we’ve been able to take sessions online. In Manchester we are working with Speakers for Schools to support Green Skills Week which includes a four-day focus on the restoration of Manchester Town Hall; we are also furthering our work with STEM Learning to launch a series of recorded podcasts highlighting different career pathways.

We work with Serious about Youth to support their Construkt programme which takes young people aged 16-25 through the life cycle of a construction/engineering project and highlights the range of available career paths. Our teams have also worked with Salford University to deliver speaking slots for their HNC Management in Construction course to provide a real-life insight into the projects we work on. Colleagues are also delivering 1-1 mentoring with students at Connell College focusing on employability, skills building, and providing an insight into engineering via Career Ready.