Young people across the UK are being challenged to devise solutions to extreme heat, food waste and other real-world problems as part of Tomorrow’s Engineers Week, which runs from 9 to 13 November.
Now in its 14th year, the annual campaign, organised by EngineeringUK, aims to encourage more young people to consider careers in engineering and technology. This year’s theme, Shape our future, focuses on how engineering can help address environmental and societal challenges.
Three design challenges invite students aged 11 to 14 to develop their problem-solving and creative thinking skills.
The Beat the heat challenge asks students to design ways of keeping schools and other learning spaces cool during periods of extreme heat, while Beyond the plate focuses on reducing or reusing food waste. A third challenge, Smart support, explores how artificial intelligence could be used to help people.
The activities are supported by free classroom resources and career stories from engineers and technicians working across different sectors, intended to demonstrate how engineering skills can be applied to practical problems.
The campaign also seeks to address a gap between young people’s interest in engineering and their perceptions of whether it offers a suitable career. Research by EngineeringUK found that 46% of young people were interested in an engineering career, but only 25% felt that engineering fitted with who they were.
Tamzin Caffrey, Head of Communications at EngineeringUK, said: “Tomorrow’s Engineers Week helps young people discover how engineering and technology shape the world around us. We want young people from all backgrounds to see how their interests and ideas could take them into engineering and technology. There are so many ways they can make a difference.”
More than 60,000 young people participated in the campaign’s school activities last year. EngineeringUK says its activities have reached over 504,000 young people since the initiative began in 2013.
Employers, professional institutions, engineers and technicians are also being encouraged to share their career experiences on social media using #TEWeek26, helping students understand the range of opportunities available.
Teachers can access the free activities and resources, while engineering organisations can download a supporters’ toolkit.