Creativity, excitement, satisfaction and fun - these are the qualities that a career in engineering offers. This message is being spread by industry, institutions and government to persuade children from an early age to develop an interest in the profession and to combat a skills shortage that threatens to cripple the industry.

The organisations can point to hundreds of high-profile projects to justify their claim, of which just a few are: developing space satellites, creating the London Olympic Park, exploring the seabed and cutting carbon emissions. "Engineers are fundamental to keeping the world moving and make a real difference to people’s lives,” says William M. Banks, president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).

“We have a passion for engineering and our aim is to transfer the excitement and satisfaction of it to young people. The next generation should be the engineering generation.” To this end, the institution has just launched the EnGeneration project. The scheme will support the diploma in engineering, launched by the Government this year to give 14 to 19-year-olds qualifications for a career in the industry.

Students taking the diploma will have access to the institution and its members, to competitions and regular newsletters and to Europe’s biggest student racing event, at Silverstone, featuring single-seat racers designed and built by young people.

Olympic rower’s training as a marine engineer helped him to win a gold medal in Beijing

A combination of physical strength, a punishing training regimen and intellectual insight certainly reaps results

BACKGROUND

• A vision to inspire

• Crying out for new recruits

• Make science fun to catch them young

• Drive to beat engineering skills shortage

A new website (www.engeneration.imeche.org) will provide benefits for successful young engineers, give details of engineering projects, suggest career paths and offer opportunities to question experienced engineers by e-mail. “This will allow youngsters in the system to work with people in industry and to see the potential of a career in engineering at an early stage,” Banks says.

EnGeneration is the latest in a series of initiatives by IMechE, including the decision last year to welcome engineering technicians into its membership. At an awards ceremony this month, the institution announced its first three visionaries: exceptional young engineers who have shown academic ability, technical skills and dedication to their profession. The awards are available for undergraduate and Whitworth Scholars and for those enrolled as IMechE EngTechs.

“These awards underpin our vision to improve the world through engineering, by inspiring, preparing and supporting tomorrow's engineers to respond to society’s challenges,” says Banks, who is also the emeritus professor of engineering at Strathclyde University.

“Engineering is not just a machine, a branch of technology or an equation to be solved; it is people. Education is central to its future, whether through this scheme which identifies people who inspire change, or through the diploma, which will add impetus to the uptake of engineering in schools.”

Maggie Aderin-Pocock, who leads the optical instrumentation group at the space systems company Astrium and is described as a “modern-day visionary” by IMechE, says: “Everybody thinks you need a brain the size of a small planet to engage in space engineering but if you have the aptitude, encouraged by vocational training, you can do it. University is not the only route and taking up the diploma would be an excellent start.”

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