Nicholas Rowe
Project Support Officer, EngineeringUK
Nick works very closely with The Code community. He manages the recruitment and onboarding process for new Signatories, and supports the Senior Code Manager to design and deliver the online event programme.
The Code explores… a new approach to deliver insights, tools and resources to the Code community
By Nicholas Rowe, Project Support Officer, EngineeringUK
The Tomorrow’s Engineers Code unites more than 300 organisations to increase the number and diversity of young people entering engineering and technology careers. To support the community, we launched The Code explores… a new approach to deliver insight, research, resources and more to Code members. Each series offers a deep dive into a particular topic, and new ways to get involved.
Here, Nick writes about how The Code explores... series came about, details the pilot series, and outlines what's to come!
About The Code
The Tomorrow’s Engineers Code is a community of more than 300 organisations committed to increasing the number and diversity of young people entering engineering and technology careers.
The community brings together a wide range of members – from global engineering and tech employers, to STEM outreach providers, education institutions, charities, professional engineering institutions, government bodies… and more!
The Code is free and for everyone. Any organisation with UK operations that funds, designs, or delivers engineering and technology outreach activities (or intends to), can become a Signatory of The Code. We also welcome organisations who don’t meet these criteria as Supporters, to act as ambassadors for The Code. Signatories and Supporters promote the aims of The Code. They share our work and insights with the wider engineering and technology community.
The Code is shaped around 4 pledges which act as a framework to help Signatories develop effective STEM outreach. We support their work towards the pledges with free resources, opportunities to connect virtually and in-person, as well as through our online programme, The Code explores…
What is The Code explores... ?
Up until early 2025, our online events took the form of monthly webinars on topics supporting Signatories’ work towards the 4 pledges. But in feedback from the annual check-in survey, Signatories told us that finding time to attend webinars can be challenging. This is especially true when work is busy and time is tight. Length of content was a factor too, with an hour’s webinar seen as a bigger commitment than more palatable touchpoints. They also wanted to explore topics more deeply, with more opportunities to connect with each other after events.
With a clear idea of what the community needed, we began developing a new programme in consultation with them. Their invaluable feedback led us to create The Code explores… – a fresh approach to delivering content.
Based on a sprint model, the programme delves into a key topic with a blend of live events, on-demand content, and supporting resources over several weeks.
The Code explores… is designed to be:
- in-depth: focusing on specific topics our members tell us are important, providing comprehensive insights and discussions
- flexible: members can engage in a way that suits their schedule, and access content when they need it via a dedicated webpage
- community driven: giving members the chance to continue conversations across the Code community – sharing ideas and getting new perspectives in the Code LinkedIn group
The Code explores... engaging schools
Our pilot, The Code explores… engaging schools, launched in May 2025.
This series helped the community expand their STEM outreach by building meaningful connections with schools. Signatories reported varied experiences and successes in their attempts to engage schools in STEM outreach, so this felt like a perfect theme for the first series.
All content from The Code explores… engaging schools was available online after each event. We shared helpful summaries and relevant resources with the community by email and in the Code LinkedIn group. The idea was to make everything available on demand, to access whenever.
Finally, I created a series takeaway pack full of highlights from the series to meet the needs of those wanting high level info.
This blog explores each episode in the series, structured around 3 key themes:
1. Presenting the evidence
Rapid insight: how do teachers engage with STEM outreach?
A 15-minute lightning talk from Joe McGettigan, Research Manager at EngineeringUK
To kick off the series, we presented the evidence of how teachers find STEM outreach activities and the channels they use to do this. Joe presented key findings from EngineeringUK's research report, How do teachers engage with STEM outreach? Insights from the talk included:
- 79% of schools had participated in STEM outreach activities in the last academic year. This demonstrates a strong appetite among educators to engage students with engineering and technology opportunities
- teachers use multiple channels to source information. 65% said they find STEM outreach activities online while 41% find information directly from relevant organisations. Word of mouth and recommendation are also important for teachers
- despite high participation, 52% of teachers cited lack of funding and 49% cited lack of time as major barriers to finding and delivering STEM outreach activities
EngineeringUK conducts a rich variety of research into engineering and technology in the UK. For the School report series, the research team surveyed 800 secondary school STEM teachers to understand how they engage with STEM outreach, their knowledge of the routes into engineering technology, the barriers to practical science, and more!
2. Tools to engage schools
The insights from the lightning talk laid the foundation for the next 2 live episodes in the series.
Connect with schools: how Neon can help you reach more young people
A 25-minute webinar led by Dan Powell, Head of Neon, and Nicholas Rowe – yes, that’s me!
Neon is a free platform helping primary and secondary teachers find quality-assured engineering and technology activities for their students. This webinar was a comprehensive guide on how the Code community can get the most from Neon. Highlights included:
- A live walkthrough of the platform, showing how to showcase activities and target the right schools and young people using Neon’s powerful filters. These filters include the ability to target underrepresented groups
- An introduction to Neon’s quality standards, explaining why quality assurance is important – and how activity providers can meet the standards
- A detailed overview of the application process, and how the Neon team supports activity providers from submission to promotion, and beyond
Neon is a trusted hub for educators to find STEM outreach activities. There are more than 6,000 registered teachers and careers advisors, with over 2,000 referrals made to activity providers in the last year. Plus, it’s free for activity providers to advertise on the platform – what’s not to love about that!
Check out Neon and submit your activities
Empowering futures: building strong school partnerships through local Careers Hubs
A 45-minute webinar led by Code Signatory, The Careers & Enterprise Company, with the Stoke and Staffordshire Careers Hub.
This fascinating webinar explored how Careers Hubs work with local businesses and schools across England and Wales to enhance the connections between education and employment. Highlights included:
- how The Careers & Enterprise Company supports businesses with national priorities, such as the Employer Standards and the new Equalex experiences of work framework
- how Stoke and Staffordshire Careers Hub supports schools. They offer a tailored framework that connects classroom learning to career pathways and the local labour market, business engagement strategies, as well as teacher CPD opportunities
- how the Stoke and Staffordshire Careers Hub helps local businesses build lasting relationships with schools. They showcased their tailored employer roadmap, hands-on activities with teachers, and workplace visits for students
This was a lively session with lots of engagement in the chat. A Q&A was held after the presentation and many attendees stayed beyond the official end time to hear insights and advice from the panel!
3. The importance of teacher voices
So far in the series, the community had explored the evidence and learned about tools they could use to engage schools in their activities. But they’d not yet heard from some of the biggest influencers of students’ career choices – teachers themselves!
Ask a teacher! The Q&A sessions
Pre-recorded videos, 20 to 30 minutes each
Code members told us they really value insight from teachers. So, for our final piece of content, we recruited 3 amazing teachers to share their thoughts via video. We asked the Code community to submit their questions to the teachers, then Cat Sturman (Senior Code Manager) acted as interviewer. The teachers' answers gave insight on what makes good school engagement, and what their priorities are when it comes to supporting students’ careers education.
Key insights included:
- real-world relevance inspires students. Hands-on projects, workplace visits, and access to real engineering challenges help students connect classroom learning to real careers and the skills needed for the world of work
- outside of group activities, informal conversation opportunities between students and STEM professionals were seen as particularly useful
- time, funding, and travel costs remain major obstacles to school engagement. The teachers emphasised the need for flexible, curriculum-linked activities and resources, alongside industry support to make participation feasible.
- making sure careers information is embedded in outreach activities can help get buy-in from senior leadership teams
- professional development opportunities are highly valued. Local labour market insights and networking opportunities help teachers better support student career learning. This reflects the Stoke and Staffordshire Careers Hub approach to linking classroom learning with local labour market needs and teacher CPD
The EngineeringUK Teacher Network
We also took questions to EngineeringUK’s Teacher Network. The network is an invaluable resource, allowing EngineeringUK to understand the perspective of those educating and influencing young people every day. It gives teachers a voice to shape engineering and technology outreach by informing EngineeringUK’s work.
Insights from the session largely echoed the interviews. Notable feedback and recommendations included:
- free or low-cost STEM outreach options like online assemblies, recorded webinars, and teacher led classroom-based activity kits and resources can help schools reduce transport and cover costs
- offering short, taster sessions can encourage schools to engage in larger scale activities and programmes
- teachers really see the value of sustained engagement in driving their students’ interest in STEM careers. Timetabling is a key consideration, with teachers feeding back that 1 activity per term is manageable for smaller groups, while whole-year group activities are typically feasible once a year
- projects aligning with the curriculum, including those embedded across multiple subjects, are more likely to be repeated due to reduced planning
What we learned from The Code explores… engaging schools series
The pilot series gave Code members valuable insights into how schools engage with STEM outreach, as well as some of the challenges they face. Taking a multi-faceted approach through a blend of online channels, such as Neon, and partnerships with local organisations like Careers Hubs, can help activity providers to reach and build relationships with schools and teachers.
We saw that curriculum-linked activities and resources with links to real engineering and technology careers and skills are important considerations for teachers when engaging with STEM outreach. Opportunities for professional development can help teachers upskill their careers education knowledge and improve the connection between schools and local businesses.
There were lots of practical tips and guidance, but for me, at the heart of this series was the importance of bringing out the skills in young people that they’ll need for their future careers and raising their awareness of the careers available. This is something that both employers and educators agree is vital and is core to successful outreach engagement with schools.
And, as we look ahead, we’re excited to build on this with our next series, The Code explores… inspiring young people.
The best way to experience The Code explores... is to join The Code!
Enjoyed reading this blog? Interested in accessing all the varied and useful content from this series? Or joining us for future Code explores…? Then why not sign up to The Code!
It’s free and easy to register – sign up here, head to our website to find out more, or book a call with me or the team to explore things further.
