Folkson said: "I am excited to be taking on this role and want to use my year as president to galvanise the membership to work together to plug the UK's engineering skills gap. We need to come to terms with the hard facts that the UK is just not producing enough engineers to meet industry demands.
"The Institution needs to work together with industry and Government to radically reshape the country's education system to ensure we have enough young people, with the right skills entering the workforce."
He added: "We also need to find out ways to reach out to non-engineers, like politicians and teachers, to help them realise the importance of engineers and the myriad of ways engineers are improving the world we live in."
Folkson, a leading automotive engineer, has been an Institution member for more than 40 years, having joined as a student member aged just 16. He served as Chairman of the Institution's Automobile Division from 2008-09, Eastern Region Chairman from 2010-12 and has been Chief Judge for the Institution's student motorsport event Formula Student since 2010.
Folkson worked in product development at Ford Motor Company for 30 years, rising to the position of chief engineer. He has also taught automotive design at Loughborough University and serves as a visiting professor in innovation and design at the University of Hertfordshire.
And he is an assessor for Innovate UK on new technology research projects including low carbon vehicles and works as a consultant advising on how future vehicle designs can reduce usage of fossil fuels.
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, founded by George Stephenson in 1847, represents more than 111,000 mechanical engineers, in over 120 countries.
