Changing the image of engineering
The campaign was created in response to significant demand for engineering talent in the UK. The nation faces a major skills challenge: EngineeringUK estimates the UK is short of 59,000 engineers per annum. Plus, only 12% of professional engineers are women and only 9 % from black, Asian or minority backgrounds. To date, the Academy’s online campaign and films have reached millions of young people and are starting to significantly change preconceptions of the profession – view a film about the ambitions of one of our engineers, Sophie Harker, and find out what inspired her career choice.
The latest activity run by This is Engineering is an assault on outdated imagery that reinforces stereotypes about engineering with the aim of seeing a more diverse range of images ranking higher in search engine image results for ‘engineer’. To help with this, a new collection of engineering images has been created. The images will depict engineers, particularly from unrepresented groups, at work – whether this is in a lab, a music studio, a velodrome or testing robotics.
In support of the campaign we have created a photo album of engineering imagery that represents BAE Systems today and tomorrow. Take a look through our album here and join the conversation on @ThisisEngineering or #ThisisEngineering.
Billie, an engineer in our electronic systems business is one of the Women’s Engineering Society’s Top 50 Female Engineers and in the Financial Times’s 100 Most Influential Engineers in the UK