3 million young people inspired and more to come as we celebrate our 25th anniversary
Established in 2001, we are proud to say we have now reached almost 3 million young people through our activities and resources. We've worked in partnership with more than 1,000 organisations and published 150 pieces of research. We've helped improve understanding of engineering and technology and its contribution to society and the economy. And we've shown a generation where engineering and technology careers could take them.
As we celebrate 25 years promoting engineering and technology, we've released new analysis showing the growth in the uptake of STEM subjects since 2001. It highlights how STEM education has changed over the past quarter of a century. STEM subjects now account for 45% of all A level entries, up from 33% in 2001. Maths has increased its share of all A level entries from 8.8% in 2001 to around 12.7% in 2026. Biology, chemistry and physics also account for a greater collective share of entries, increasing from 16.3% to 20.4%.
Over the same period the number of engineering and technology undergraduate degree entries has grown from 108, 455 to 172,375. And engineering and technology-related apprenticeships have doubled since 2002, with the latest data showing 102,280 starts for 2024/25.
Engineering and technology continues to play a vital role in the UK economy. There are 6.3 million people working in engineering and technology roles – that’s around 1 in 5 of the workforce.
While there is much to celebrate, there's still progress to be made, particularly regarding gender. The proportion of girls doing maths at A level is unchanged since 2001 at 37%. And physics has seen just a small increase in entries by girls - from 22% to 24%. In 2010, women made up only 10% of the UK’s engineering and technology workforce and the pace of change has been slow. Women remain significantly underrepresented today at just 17% of the workforce.
In order to address this, and aligned to our mission, we recently published the 40 by 40 blueprint for action, on behalf of the Gender Pathways collective. 40 by 40 calls for actions to increase the number of girls and young women are on educational pathways into engineering and technology. We want to ensure they make up at least 40% of young people on those pathways by 2040.
EngineeringUK's 25th anniversary is a great time to celebrate how far we've come. And to mark the achievements of young people, educators, employers and organisations across the engineering and technology community.
We're proud to have reached more than 3 million young people, helping them discover the exciting opportunities that engineering and technology careers can offer. The growth in the uptake of STEM subjects over the past 25 years is really encouraging.
None of this would have been possible without working in partnership. As we look ahead to the next 25 years, we want to build on what we've achieved together. We want to reach even more young people and help ensure engineering and technology is open to everyone, whatever their background.
— Dr Hilary Leevers, Chief Executive
