Tomorrow’s Engineers initiative launched to inspire youngsters

The scheme, announced to teachers at the Association for Science Education Conference in Nottingham yesterday (7 January) will initially support hands-on engineering activities to 30,000 children and young people aged five to 19 in 2010. Supported by Airbus, E-ON, the IET, and Thales, Tomorrow's Engineers will target children who have the potential to do well in maths and science but whose schools are not yet actively engaged in engineering activities. The partnership will bring together programmes provided by the Engineering Development Trust, the Industrial Trust, Primary Engineer, Sentinus, the Smallpeice Trust, STEM Cymru, Young Engineers and Young Engineers & Science Clubs Scotland, and expand them to provide places for an additional 30,000 children in 2010. Tomorrow's Engineers will also provide funding, services, communications and administrative support to its constituent programmes, enabling them to focus on inspiring students with a better appreciation of engineering and engineering careers. Reaching out to children, teachers and parents, Tomorrow's Engineers will address the fact that young people's experiences in their childhood and early teens are a major factor in determining their pursuit of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers, with a quarter (28%) of practitioners claiming to have started thinking about a career in STEM before the age of 11 and a further third (35%) between the ages of 12 and 14. 1 EngineeringUK chief executive Paul Jackson said Tomorrow's Engineers had been devised to inspire young people at an age when it really counted by engaging them with inspirational engineering activities during their formative years. "We hope that the Tomorrow's Engineers partnership will inspire the next generation of engineers in 2010 and beyond."