Supporting engineering and tech pathways across the devolved nations
Although education and skills are devolved, many employers operate UK‑wide. And young people move across borders for education and work.
Our policy work brings together government, industry, education and training providers and sector partners to identify shared challenges and practical solutions. We want to make sure systems support pathways into engineering and technology careers across the nations.
We're prioritising this work in Scotland as the largest of the devolved nations in terms of population, engineering and technology base and numbers of schools. Scotland’s education and skills system – with its own curriculum, qualifications, assessment methods and structures – offers opportunities for valuable insight and comparison across the UK.
We plan to build our insight and engagement in Wales and Northern Ireland.
Strengthening policy engagement in Scotland
Our relationships with government officials, national agencies, sector bodies and cross-nation employers across Scotland are growing.
We're focused on establishing a credible and constructive role for EngineeringUK within Scotland’s STEM skills and education landscape, working closely with local partners.
Areas of focus
Scotland's sciences curriculum reform
Scotland is undertaking significant reform of its sciences curriculum. This presents an opportunity to design science education in a way that will better prepare young people for engineering and technology careers.
We collaborated with Education Scotland, the national body for supporting quality and improvement of learning and teaching in Scottish education, to make sure engineering and technology perspectives informed the earliest stages of the review.
We co‑hosted a roundtable with representatives from 11 major engineering and technology employers as well as representative bodies, spanning energy, infrastructure, construction and critical technologies.
Employer insights and practical recommendations from the discussion are now feeding directly into Education Scotland’s curriculum development plans.
Education Scotland has established a ‘critical friends’ group to embed ongoing industry input and is extending industry engagement across all curriculum teams.
Cross nation apprenticeship coherence
Apprenticeships are a vital route into engineering and technology careers. Our cross‑nation project examines how differences between the Scottish and English apprenticeship systems can create practical challenges for employers operating across both.
With both systems evolving, there is a timely opportunity to consider how greater clarity and coherence could support employers and expand opportunities for young people.
We have engaged over 30 employers and sector bodies through interviews and a policy workshop involving representatives from the Scottish Government and Skills England. This has created a shared space to explore long‑standing challenges around system divergence and what opportunities there are to achieve greater coherence.
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