EngineeringUK report confirms engineering is central to economic growth

The Institution of Agricultural Engineers welcome the results of a study undertaken by EngineeringUK that reveals, not only is engineering central to ensuring economic growth, but it also plays a major role in helping to tackle global challenges, such as climate change, health, food security, biodiversity, water security, population and energy security.

The UK engineering sector generated 1.15 trillion in turnover in the year ending March 2010, nearly 25 per cent of turnover of all UK businesses. It also employs 5.6 million people across 551,520 different businesses.

The report – The state of engineering 2012 – launched today, calls for parents and teachers to promote the importance of subjects such as physics and mathematics to primary age children. It predicts that by the time today’s primary school pupils are of working age, the UK will need over two million additional engineers to meet demand. Thus primary age children need to have developed sufficient numeracy skills to enable them to choose maths and physics subjects for further study.

Chris Whetnall, Institution of Agricultural Engineers Chief Executive officer said :”The report further highlights the fact that there has been a significant fall (>10%) in the number of technical teachers in Further Education. This confirms the experience in our sector where technical teaching posts in both the FE and private sector have been difficult to fill.

Salary levels within the FE sector are not high enough to attract candidates and even the higher salaries offered by the private sector are not attracting the right calibre of individuals with up to date skills sets.

Agriculture and agricultural engineering are forward-looking sectors. If we are to meet the challenges of climate change and food security we must act now to address these issues, “concluded Chris.

IAgrE

IAgrE is the professional body for scientists, technologists, engineers, academics, managers and students working in the landbased sector and has an international membership base.

As a licensed body of the Engineering Council (EngC) and a founding Constituent Body of The Society for the Environment (SocEnv), IAgrE registers suitably experienced professionals as Chartered Engineers, Chartered Environmentalists, Incorporated Engineers and Engineering Technicians.