Young people don't want to be engineers, according to the latest figures. Education reporter Lyn Barton investigates and asks what schools should be doing to encourage our next generation of engineers

ENGINEERS HAVE an image problem. As far as school pupils are concerned, they are seen as blue-overalled grease monkeys.

The fact is that fewer sixth formers leaving school want to go into the highly-paid and rewarding profession.

This year there was a ten per cent drop in the number of youngsters taking up places at university to study mechanical engineering.

In fact, it was the subject with the biggest fall in interest.

Sciences didn't do any better with the number of sixth formers taking up places on chemistry, physics and biology courses showing an alarming decrease.

The situation is storing up problems for the future, for without top-class, home-grown engineers, who will design and build the Millennium Domes of the future, who will make the breakthroughs in biotechnology and will Britain ever get its own Bill Gates?

"Nationally the figures with respect to science and engineering-based courses are down," said Dr Roger Ash, who is in charge of admissions at Bradford University.

"The image of an engineer is of a person who perhaps comes to fix the central heating wearing blue overalls. There's nothing wrong with that, but young people are failing to see engineers as highly-skilled professionals who earn a lot of money.

"Schools are not getting it over to the students early enough, so that pupils are not seeing it as a rewarding profession."

The answer is for schools to promote engineering as an exciting, accessible subject.

One school where that has not been a problem is Wyke Manor.

There, the Young Engineers Club was massively oversubscribed with 11 places filled overnight when it was set up a year ago.

Head of Technology, Rod Dyson, says there is still a waiting list of 85 eager young engineers and he is pestered daily about joining up.

"The students really enjoy the challenge of solving problems and making things," he said.

He believes the key to making engineering attractive is tying 'old' skills, like metalwork, with 'new' IT-driven skills, such as using a computer to help solve a design problem.

The jewel in the club's crown is their trophy for winning the 15-to-16 years group of the Young Engineers for Britain with their robot, built to appear on high-tech combat TV programme, Robot Wars.

They also won the Department of Education prize for the best project from a school entering for the first time.

The approach seems to have worked for Daljit Bajral, a 15-year-old who is determined to go into mechanical engineering after taking science-based A-levels.

"I really enjoyed helping build the robot. It took a lot of effort and a lot of time, but it was worth it," he said.

However, many of the keen young engineers are still not convinced.

Harmit Rao, the 16-year-old with the grand title, Chief Designer, does not want to go into engineering.

"I enjoyed working on the project, but I don't think it's something I want to do when I leave school."

Andrew Hields, 14, said he would rather be an architect than an engineer.

Dave Ham is the Bradford Girls' Grammar School teacher behind the bid to break the world land speed record with a diesel-driven car built by students.

He says the point is to make it interesting and relevant.

"Engineering has got to be exciting. The pupils have got to want to do it or there is no point."

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