Introduction
The National Engineering Policy Centre (NEPC) has responded to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) call for evidence, ‘Building a future tech sector that works for everyone’. EngineeringUK is a member of the NEPC.
Through this call, the Women in Tech Taskforce seeks evidence on the interventions needed to help build a tech sector that works for everyone.
Drawing on major skills surveys, workforce data and the Engineers 2030 programme, the response shows that digital, data and AI capabilities are becoming core requirements across disciplines. It highlights growing demand for hybrid skills that combine technical expertise with safety assurance, ethics, systems thinking and regulatory understanding.
The response finds that skills shortages, curriculum misalignment and underdeveloped training pathways are limiting the UK’s ability to capitalise on emerging technologies. It also warns that without deliberate action, technological change risks reinforcing existing inequalities, particularly for women and other underrepresented groups.
Who this is for
- MPs
- Policymakers
- Employers
- Professional Engineering Institutions
Key findings
- emerging technologies are rapidly increasing demand for digital, data and AI skills across all engineering disciplines, not only specialist technology roles
- employers expect AI to improve productivity. But shortages in advanced technical skills, rooted partly in misaligned education pathways, are limiting the workforce’s ability to deliver these gains
- new hybrid roles are emerging that combine technical expertise with safety assurance, ethics, systems thinking and regulatory understanding
- education and training pathways are not adapting quickly enough – with curricula often failing to embed durable digital, interdisciplinary and ethical skills
- women and other underrepresented groups remain significantly underrepresented in engineering and technology, with inequalities in education, training access and progression contributing to this gap
- without targeted and inclusive reform, emerging technologies risk reinforcing existing workforce inequalities rather than reducing them
Key insights
Emerging technologies are changing engineering work at a faster pace than the UK’s skills system can currently respond.
Digital, data and AI capabilities are no longer optional or confined to specialist roles – but essential foundations for engineering practice across sectors. Yet education, training and workforce planning remain insufficiently aligned to this shift. As a result, employers face persistent skills shortages precisely where productivity gains and innovation potential are greatest.
Addressing this requires prioritising durable, transferable skills alongside technical depth, while ensuring curricula, apprenticeships and professional development evolve in step with technological change.
The evidence also shows that workforce inclusion must be treated as a central part of the technology transition, not a secondary concern.
Women and other underrepresented groups remain less likely to enter, stay in, or progress within engineering and technology roles. These inequalities are evident from early education through training, career entry and progression, particularly in AI related areas. Patterns of subject choice, access to high quality training and inflexible career structures shape who reaches these roles in the first place, rather than selection alone determining outcomes.
Without intentional action on educational pathways, progression, workplace culture, leadership and flexible career routes, emerging technologies risk amplifying existing inequalities. A successful future tech workforce will depend on reforms that expand opportunity, support mid career transitions and enable diverse talent to shape how new technologies are developed and deployed.
