Peter Finegold, head of Engineering and Skills at IMECHE and lead author of the report, said: "The engineering profession is well-placed to promote social mobility because unlike other high-value professions like medicine, people can pursue successful careers by completing apprenticeships.
"Apart from potentially being more affordable than completing a university degree, an apprenticeship also offers people the opportunity to focus on practical skills that are typically more transferable to the workplace than pure academic study.
The report says that boosting the number of people pursuing engineering careers would generate an expanded, skilled, technical community within our society. Ignoring the importance of engineering and modern apprenticeships will result in a persistent mismatch between the training and study choices made by young people and the real job opportunities, propagating an ongoing skills gap and social stagnation.
The main points raise by the report are that the Government make schools and colleges accountable for structured careers advice, review the structure of post-secondary education, provide meaningful work experience placements for pupils and that the engineering community should come together to highlight the financial and personal benefit engineering training and study to pupils of all backgrounds.
Finegold concluded: "Boosting the number of people pursuing engineering careers, whether through an academic or vocational route, will mean greater wealth for the UK as a whole."
