About The Royal Academy of
Engineering.
As the UK’s national academy for
engineering, we bring together
the most successful and talented
engineers for a shared purpose:
to advance and promote
excellence in engineering. We
provide analysis and policy
support to promote the UK’s role
as a great place to do business.
We take a lead on engineering
education and we invest in the
UK’s world-class research base to
underpin innovation. We work to
improve public awareness and
understanding of engineering. We
are a national academy with a global
outlook.
The pilot was actively supported by a
collaboration of 14 engineering businesses
and delivered in partnership with Sponsors
for Educational Opportunity (SEO) London
– an organisation with an eighteen-year
track record of preparing talented students
from ethnic minority or low socioeconomic
backgrounds for career success. Early
indications from the pilot are encouraging,
with 15 placements, 38 internships and 38
graduate roles secured. Full results will be
available once all students have graduated in
the years to come.
Organisations participating in the pilot
phase of the programme valued the access
it gave them to a pre-filtered talent pool of
female and BAME engineering students from
post-92 universities and the opportunity to
work with other organisations to address
shared strategic concerns regarding
diversity, inclusion and the engineering
skills gap. Recommendations from the pilot
evaluation include more transparency of
recruitment practice, better tracking of
recruitment data to help understand the
impact of outreach of this kind, and more
active encouragement and networking
between employers and students to support
changing perceptions and behaviour on
both sides.
To coincide with the launch of this
programme, the Diversity and Inclusion
Leadership Group - the Academy’s network
of engineering employers working on
these challenges - has released an inclusive
recruitment practice toolkit freely available
for use across the engineering profession
and beyond.
Bola Fatimilehin, Head of Diversity and
Inclusion, Royal Academy of Engineering,
said; “Working with so many enthusiastic
engineering employers to design and
deliver a three-year pilot to increase the
transition of ethnic monitory, female and
socioeconomically disadvantaged students
into the profession has been fantastic. Now
that the Graduate Engineering Engagement
Programme is a permanent feature of
Academy work, even more employers are
coming on board. Together we will make
engineering the career destination of choice
for all engineering graduates and at the
same time increase diversity and inclusion
across the profession.”
John McCollum, Engineering Director, BAE
Systems, which participated in the pilot
programme, said; “The programme has given
us direct access to a wider, more diverse,
range of engineering students, including
those who may not have immediately
thought of a career with BAE Systems.”
Coral Taylor, Inclusion Business Partner,
Amey, which also participated in the pilot
programme, said; “The engineering skills
shortages in the UK are too big for any one
organisation to tackle alone. Achieving
results to scale requires us to move from
individual initiatives to cross-sector working
to deliver truly industry transforming
interventions.
“The greatest strength of this programme
is that it is bringing together engineering
employers and organisations from right
across the spectrum; from small employers
with a handful of people, to those with an
extensive global reach. It is breaking down
the silos of personal interest and forcing us
to realise that when working together, we
all benefit more. We will continue to support
the Royal Academy with this important
work,and look forward to more businesses
joining us.”
We have three strategic challenges:
- Make the UK the leading nation
for engineering innovation
- Address the engineering skills
crisis
- Position engineering at the heart
of society
The Graduate Engineering
Engagement Programme. The
Academy works with engineering
employers and SEO London to
deliver the Graduate Engineering
Engagement Programme. This
follows on from the successful
three-year pilot project; Engineering
Engagement Programme, which
ran from 2015 to 2018 working with
AECOM, Amey, Arup, Atkins, BAE
Systems, Capita, CH2M, Leonardo,
Metaswitch Networks, Network Rail,
Renishaw, Rolls-Royce plc, Siemens,
and Thales. The programme is
designed to support the transition
of engineering graduates from
diverse backgrounds including
female, ethnic minority, socially
disadvantaged and from post-
92 universities into engineering
employment.
SEO London. We prepare talented
students from ethnic minority or
low socioeconomic backgrounds for
career success. Since its founding
in 2000, SEO London’s scale has
increased significantly across its
three flagship programmes: SEO
Careers, SEO Scholars and SEO
Connect. SEO London’s Careers
Programme is supported by over 70
sponsor firms across eight leading
industries and has supported
several thousand alumni into
undergraduate internships and
graduate roles since 2000. SEO
Scholars provides hundreds of
secondary school students with
comprehensive training, mentoring
and work experience. SEO Connect
links our outstanding alumni
professionals with peer networks,
mentors and experienced job
opportunities around the world.