Building a culture that makes a difference

As EngineeringUK celebrates its 25th anniversary, I've been reflecting not just on what we've achieved, but on the kind of organisation we've become and the difference we want to make in the years ahead. For me, success means giving the nation confidence that we can meet its engineering and technology workforce needs. This workforce is critical to UK growth and Skills England has identified it as in significant workforce demand.  

But no organisation can tackle it alone. 

When I joined EngineeringUK as Chief Executive in 2019, I wanted to build a culture where people worked together. Where people challenged assumptions and weren't afraid to try something different, with collaboration, inclusion and evidence to shape everything we did. Seven years on, I'm proud of how we’re doing, whilst still knowing we have further to go! Our values shape everything we do. We’re inclusive, collaborative, curious, insightful and driven. And they aren’t simply words on a page. They're reflected in how we work with each other and with our partners and how we approach the challenges facing the sector. 

Working better together 

I've really enjoyed seeing a growing willingness across the engineering and technology outreach community to work together. Our Corporate Members, Professional Engineering Institutions and more than 400 organisations signed up to The Tomorrow's Engineers Code are actively sharing the extraordinary breadth of their expertise and experience. They help us understand the challenges facing the sector, share their learnings and identify where and how we can make the greatest difference. 

That spirit of collaboration is just as important within EngineeringUK as colleagues share ideas and expertise across teams rather than work in silos. It's rewarding to see that become part of our everyday culture. 

What excites me most is the shift towards greater openness across the sector. Organisations are increasingly willing to share their successes, acknowledge challenges and learn from one another. That collective approach gives us a much stronger foundation for tackling the workforce challenges ahead. 

Making inclusion everyone's responsibility 

Another change I'm particularly happy about is how deeply inclusion has become embedded in our work. Women still account for just 17% of the engineering and technology workforce. If we're serious about changing that, and addressing other inequalities, we need to look carefully at who we're reaching.

That's why we prioritise schools with higher proportions of students from backgrounds underrepresented in engineering and technology. We direct our most intensive activities towards those who could benefit most, whilst maintaining a lighter offer available to all.  

But for me, the real sign of progress is that inclusion is no longer something discussed by just one team. Colleagues across EngineeringUK regularly challenge one another to consider whose perspectives might be missing or how an activity could reach a wider audience. 

That commitment is also reflected in our work establishing and providing the secretariat for the Gender Pathways collective, made up of around 60 organisations. Working together we're aiming for girls and young women to make up at least 40% of young people on educational pathways into engineering and technology by 2040. It's an ambitious goal, but one that we believe is achievable with the strength of organisations we have uniting around this shared purpose. 

Being curious, and learning what works 

I've always believed that making a meaningful difference starts with understanding the problem. When I joined EngineeringUK, I wanted us to become more evidence-led and more open about what worked, what didn't and what we - and others – could learn. Today, research and evaluation informs all our activities for schools, our policy work and the support we provide to organisations across the sector. 

Our Climate Schools Programme is a good example. Insights into young people's interests helped us recognise the opportunity to engage diverse groups by connecting engineering and technology careers with solutions to the climate crisis. We worked with young people to develop the content and piloted and iterated activities to improve their impact.  

But evidence alone isn't enough. We also need curiosity: the confidence to ask questions, challenge established approaches and experiment with new ideas. Our culture enables people to do that, knowing that learning from something that doesn't work as we’d hoped is just as valuable as celebrating something that does. 

The ambition for the next 25 years 

Our fifth value, being driven, brings everything together. It reflects the determination I see across EngineeringUK to turn good intentions into meaningful change. The stakes are high. Engineering and technology has a vital role to play in the UK's economic prosperity and sustainability, and the country needs a workforce equipped to meet those challenges. 

But what motivates me just as much is the difference we can make to individual lives.  Every young person who discovers an opportunity they hadn't previously considered or who begins to see themselves as a future engineer, technician or technologist. Each one who finds a career that gives them purpose and fulfilment. They're all part of that bigger picture. 

As we look towards EngineeringUK's next 25 years, there's much more to achieve. I'm excited about what we can accomplish by continuing to work together, being willing to challenge ourselves and keeping young people at the heart of everything we do.