The Year of Engineering

2018 is the offi­cial year of engi­neer­ing and with four months gone and eight yet to come, we have already seen lots to cel­e­brate and lots to plan for, for engi­neer­ing recruiters and candidates.

What is the Year of Engineering?

The Year of Engi­neer­ing is a gov­ern­ment-backed cam­paign, that sets out to cel­e­brate and high­light one of the UK’s most pro­duc­tive indus­try that is already con­tribut­ing £486 bil­lion to the UK econ­o­my. With a cal­en­dar full of events, talks, chal­lenges and exhi­bi­tions, 2018 is going to be the year for engi­neer­ing recruiters and candidates.

Why Are We Cel­e­brat­ing Engineering?

We all know that as a career and an indus­try, engi­neer­ing is inno­v­a­tive, excit­ing and reward­ing. How­ev­er, there is a lack of pub­lic knowl­edge and inter­est, espe­cial­ly among women and school chil­dren, in engi­neer­ing. This has result­ed in a sec­tor with a sig­nif­i­cant gen­der and eth­nic imbal­ance and with a notable lack of young and new entrants.

The UK cur­rent­ly has a 56,000 annu­al short­fall in engi­neer­ing grad­u­ates and an engi­neer­ing demo­graph­ic that is 94% white and 92% male. We are at the point of an engi­neer­ing cri­sis and the gov­ern­ment is tak­ing a proac­tive approach to address­ing this by show­cas­ing engi­neer­ing and high­light­ing the mul­ti­tude of oppor­tu­ni­ties with­in it.

How Are We Celebrating

The Year of Engi­neer­ing is putting engi­neer­ing in the spot­light, in a big way. Backed by an inspir­ing social media cam­paign, 2018 is filled with a vari­ety of nation­al and region­al events, talks and exhi­bi­tions — spark­ing debate, aware­ness and media cov­er­age that engi­neer­ing recruiters and can­di­dates like you can get involved in. In par­tic­u­lar, the Year of Engi­neer­ing aims to high­light:

• Engi­neer­ing — What it is and what it encompasses
• Women in engi­neer­ing — Cel­e­brat­ing exist­ing female tal­ent and chal­leng­ing stereotypes
• Engi­neer­ing’s role in mak­ing the world a bet­ter place — Demon­strat­ing major achieve­ments and look­ing towards the future
• Engi­neer­ing as a career — Routes in, around and up
• Skills and mind­set — Prov­ing that engi­neer­ing is more than just a tech­ni­cal mind

What’s Hap­pened So Far?

Time flies when you’re hav­ing fun and the YoE has already achieved tonnes in its first four months. We’ve seen cod­ing ses­sions in Apple stores, the launch of the James Dyson Award, the open­ing of a muse­um ded­i­cat­ed to Brunel, a per­for­mance by the world’s first robot­ic orches­tra and two new ded­i­cat­ed exhi­bi­tions at the Lon­don Trans­port Museum.

How Can You Get Involved?

There are still plen­ty of oppor­tu­ni­ties for RTRS’s engi­neer­ing recruiters and can­di­dates to get involved:

Become a reg­is­tered partner

Pledge your sup­port to the cam­paign and help to raise aware­ness by sign­ing up here. Already backed by the UK Space Agency, Apple, the RAF, Air­bus and Boe­ing — you will be in good com­pa­ny as an offi­cial sponsor.

Take part in upcom­ing events

Make an active con­tri­bu­tion in help­ing the world to see the excit­ing, reward­ing and cre­ative career that is engi­neer­ing. Check out the list of upcom­ing events at the end of this blog.

Share

You don’t need to be an engi­neer in order to take part. Share news, insight and opin­ion with fam­i­ly, friends and col­leagues to help increase pub­lic aware­ness and shat­ter stereotypes.

Why Engi­neer­ing Recruiters and Can­di­dates Should Get Involved?

Tak­ing part in the Year of Engi­neer­ing will help you to:

Raise your profile

Whether that is rais­ing your pro­file as an employ­er or an employ­ee, there are plen­ty of oppor­tu­ni­ties to net­work, get known and strength­en your com­pa­ny or per­son­al brand.

Increase your knowledge

The Year of Engi­neer­ing isn’t just about chal­leng­ing the pub­lic’s per­cep­tion — it’s about chal­leng­ing yours too; open­ing your mind and broad­en­ing your experience.

Demon­strate your passion

Tak­ing part looks great on your CV and is some­thing to talk about at interviews.

How RTRS is Pledg­ing its Support

We’ll be high­light­ing the Year of Engi­neer­ing reg­u­lar­ly with our blogs, news pieces and dis­cussing it with our clients and can­di­dates. This is our year — let’s celebrate!

YoE Events (May — July)

Sci­ence Muse­um — London
Ongoing
Engi­neer Your Future
An inter­ac­tive exhi­bi­tion about engineering.

Invis­i­ble Super­heroes (ICE) — London
Through­out 2018
Cel­e­brate the unsung engi­neer­ing heroes who are trans­form­ing lives and safe­guard­ing the future.

The Pow­er of Women and Inno­va­tion — Salford
09 May 2018
Dis­cuss and debate the role of women in engineering.
EPC Annu­al Con­gress — Newport
14 May 2018
Net­work, learn and share at the EPC’s annu­al Con­gress, dis­cussing if engi­neer­ing HE is fit for the future

Imag­i­neer­ing Fair — Somerset
30 May — 02 June
Com­pa­nies, col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties get togeth­er for a four-day fair ded­i­cat­ed to engi­neer­ing and technology

Big Bang Fairs
Bring­ing STEM to life with an excit­ing and inspir­ing range of activ­i­ties from employ­ers and col­leges across the UK.

Scot­land — 12 June 2018
Hay­wards Heath — 27 June 2018
Bris­tol — 27 June 2018
Hert­ford­shire — 05 July 2018
Liv­er­pool — 10 July 2018
Lon­don — 13 July 2018

V&A Muse­um — London
28 May — 01 June 2018

Open House Fam­i­lies — London
10 June 2018
A free fes­ti­val of design, engi­neer­ing and architecture.

UK Robot­ics Week — London
21–29 June 2018
A nation­al week of celebration

Imeche Rail Chal­lenge — Leicestershire
28 June 2018
Teams go head-to-head show­cas­ing their bespoke designed and man­u­fac­tured rail­ways locomotives

Euro­pean Inter­na­tion­al Sub­ma­rine Race — Gosport
04–13 July 2018
Com­bin­ing sport and engi­neer­ing in a human-pow­ered sub­ma­rine race against the clock.

Home Automa­tion Chal­lenge Cer­e­mo­ny — Coventry
06 July 2018
Show­cas­ing and announc­ing this year’s win­ners — design­ing and man­u­fac­tur­ing a prod­uct automat­ing a task int eh home or garden

For­mu­la Stu­dent — Northamptonshire
11 July — 15 July