IEEE chief Moshe Kam

From fears of an impending skills shortage to concerns over its ability to engage with the public and attract a new generation of graduates, the UK engineering sector faces a number of well-known and frequently reported challenges.

It’s often tempting to regard these issues as a very British problem: a symptom of a culturally ingrained failure to play to our historic strengths. But as anyone familiar with the wider global engineering community will attest, the challenges faced by the UK are far from unique.

One person better qualified than most to comment on the global state of the profession is Prof Moshe Kam, president and chief executive officer of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), the world’s largest professional engineering body.

Talking to The Engineer during a recent visit to the UK, Kam provided some welcome international perspective on the trials and tribulations of the global engineering profession.

And of all the issues that trouble the eminent electrical engineer, it is the declining interest of young people in engineering that appears to worry him the most.

’There’s no question that one very serious problem we have is the image of engineering in the eyes of young people,’ said Kam. ’While there is no shortage of engineering candidates for study in China, India and many other developing countries, there is a decline of interest in northern America, western Europe and some other countries, such as South Africa.’

“If you have a teacher who’s afraid of getting in to the lab because they’re not sure what will happen – you are not inspiring young people to follow”

Much of the blame for this, he claims, lies with engineering educators, who have consistently failed to capitalise on the subject’s ability to excite and inspire. ’Think of the way physicians represent themselves or websites that advise young people on careers describe them,’ he said. ’They are seen as individuals who save lives, they eradicate plagues, they aid humanity. They do not concentrate on the struggles to get the accounting right with the insurers. Somehow in engineering we fail to convey to young people the sense that engineering is actually a noble profession.’

One of the ways the IEEE is helping to address this perception gap is through its Try Engineering initiative (www.tryengineering.org). Jointly developed with IBM, the website is a laudable attempt to explain to students, parents, teachers and the general public what engineers actually do, as well as to demystify the route into an engineering career. According to Kam, the website is receiving around six million hits a year.

Engaging with teachers, Kam believes, is particularly important. ’Increasingly, teachers of young students have no direct connection to engineering. Many science teachers don’t even have a degree and in some cases are more or less general practitioners, who are asked to teach this or that. If you have a teacher of physics who’s a little bit afraid of getting in to the physics lab because they’re not sure what will happen you are not inspiring young people to follow.’

The IEEE’s teacher in-service programme which encourages skilled volunteers to work with teachers on engineering lessons is, said Kam, one model that could help build grassroots enthusiasm and understanding. ’We are looking for volunteers who are parents of young children and we’re trying to educate them to work with teachers, so that they can take a class of 30 students and devise a set of classes that will end with them building something,’ he explained. ’We are trying to bring a sense of creativeness, joy and intellectual challenge to young people, so that they look at engineering and see it is interesting. It’s something all engineering associations need to be engaged in if we are to start making a difference.’

And it’s critical, he added, that this engagement occurs as early as possible. ’By the time they get to university it’s too late we really need to catch them early. Many [students], because of lack of understanding, are making selections of classes that, by the time they are 14, completely block the way into an engineering or technology programme.’

“By the time they get to university it’s too late – we really need to catch them early”

But the responsibility to affect change doesn’t lie with educators alone. Indeed, policy makers also have a major role to play in creating the right climate, said Kam.

’In terms of policy, trying to put more individuals with education in the sciences and engineering in the pre-university systems has almost not been on the radar of any government. Those who are responsible for the education of those who will teach future engineers are almost totally disconnected if I had one dollar to invest and you asked me where to put it, it is there.’

One popularly held belief for the reason that engineering has a perception problem is the fact that engineers don’t have a universally protected status such as doctors benefit from. But while Kam agreed this could help, he suggested that the engineering industry has not earned the right to insist on this sort of protection. ’With exclusive status comes an increased social obligation. For instance, if I fall ill today, show at the hospital and have no money to pay for it, they are not going to send me away. If I am sued and I don’t have money to pay, a lawyer will be assigned to me. We have not yet developed an engineering ethos that if, say, an impoverished community needs to build a kindergarten or school, it will go to the local civil engineering firm and say, “you do the following pro bono work for me because you owe me due to your protected status”. Protected status is good, but it’s a social contract if we want to do it we need to commit to the whole package. Engineers speak about one part of it but not the other. What are we giving back to society in exchange?’ It’s a perspective that will almost certainly throw fresh fuel on a debate that never ends.