Sir Anthony Cleaver has called for more teenagers to be encouraged to take up engineering – in order to prevent the UK facing a shortage of skilled technicians in the future.
According to the former IBM boss, teenagers should be provided with more information about and access to engineering that will inspire them to take it on as a career.
He said: “from all I’ve read the curriculum is pretty full, it’s probably unrealistic to expect to put more into the curriculum, but it does mean you need to take up the opportunities that are there for extra-curricular activities.”
He also commented that the UK needs to think about the sort of workforce it needs in the future.
Sir Anthony continued: “First of all there is agreement across the political spectrum that we have got to balance the economy.
“If we’re going to do that and address the major issues we face like energy, water and transport, one of the key areas is engineering.
“The problem is we have a significant shortfall in engineers at the technical level.”
Research conducted by Engineering UK, of which Sir Anthony is Chairman, found that over the next decade, 500,000 people with technical skills will be needed to support the manufacturing industry.