Careers representatives from the Engineering and Technology Board and the Royal Academy of Engineering took part in an online discussion about engineering careers last month.
The message was clear: industry and education providers could do better at providing the right careers advice to prospective engineering students.
The message was clear: industry and education providers could do better at providing the right careers advice to prospective engineering students.
"Our experience of working with young people tells us that good careers advice is vital for students facing decisions about their future career," the Royal Academy of Engineering's Heather Hawthorne pointed out.
She identified two key aspects in encouraging greater interest in engineering careers in the UK.
"As students approach a major decision point about the future, they need accurate and up-to-date sources of information from people they trust," Hawthorne said.
"We have learnt that students need to be inspired throughout their education," she added.
I agree, which is why I was so impressed to learn of an amateur satellite project called FUNcube (see page 8), which is aimed at firing the imagination of primary and secondary school pupils.
The project is the idea of AMSAT-UK, a voluntary organisation that supports the design and building of equipment for amateur radio satellites.
The intention is to help school pupils build systems to receive telemetry data from a satellite running materials science experiments in space. They can then compare the results with those they obtain from similar reference experiments in the classroom.
This year being the 40th anniversary of the moon landings, we are all too aware how space science can inspire school children in a way few other examples of engineering achievement can.
So it makes sense to use space technology to encourage young engineers. But it seems UK educators have failed to see the potential of space science for inspiring young engineers.
As FUNcube project leader Graham Shirville told EW, "It is the only satellite we know of designed to encourage children."
Initial funding for the project has come not from the department of education, but from the Radio Communications Foundation, a charity set up to fund efforts to "bring the wonders of radio into the classrooms, universities and any other public place where hands-on demonstration can influence understanding".
Careers advice should start in the classroom.
She identified two key aspects in encouraging greater interest in engineering careers in the UK.
"As students approach a major decision point about the future, they need accurate and up-to-date sources of information from people they trust," Hawthorne said.
"We have learnt that students need to be inspired throughout their education," she added.
I agree, which is why I was so impressed to learn of an amateur satellite project called FUNcube (see page 8), which is aimed at firing the imagination of primary and secondary school pupils.
The project is the idea of AMSAT-UK, a voluntary organisation that supports the design and building of equipment for amateur radio satellites.
The intention is to help school pupils build systems to receive telemetry data from a satellite running materials science experiments in space. They can then compare the results with those they obtain from similar reference experiments in the classroom.
This year being the 40th anniversary of the moon landings, we are all too aware how space science can inspire school children in a way few other examples of engineering achievement can.
So it makes sense to use space technology to encourage young engineers. But it seems UK educators have failed to see the potential of space science for inspiring young engineers.
As FUNcube project leader Graham Shirville told EW, "It is the only satellite we know of designed to encourage children."
Initial funding for the project has come not from the department of education, but from the Radio Communications Foundation, a charity set up to fund efforts to "bring the wonders of radio into the classrooms, universities and any other public place where hands-on demonstration can influence understanding".
Careers advice should start in the classroom.
About half of all astronauts of all nationalities are radio amateurs. It's scientific hobby with a huge range of opportunities and avenues to be explored for people of all ages.
It is also a sport with international competitors, competing in teams or individually, for the able-bodied and disabled alike. Growing in popularity is radio orienteering, combining the skills and fitness regime of cross-country work with radio direction-finding.
Nothing else compares and if you catch youngsters young enough they'll keep it going for life and likely get a job with it.