EngineeringUK CEO Dr Hilary Leevers discusses the importance of encouraging engineers into teaching. To secure a strong engineering and technology workforce for the future, we need well qualified STEM teachers now, but schools continue to struggle to recruit them. I've written in pretty much every monthly column about the workforce shortages in engineering and the various factors that underlie them, but I don't think I've talked enough about teachers. In order to progress into engineering and technology, young people need to be taught the bedrock subjects by inspiring teachers with specialist knowledge. Unfortunately, there are shortages in the key feeder subjects that lead young people into these areas - mathematics, computer science, design & technology (D&T) - with shortages most acute in physics. Indeed, only about a fifth of physics teacher training places were filled in England this year, with similar issues, to a greater or lesser extent, across the country and, in fact, many other countries. There are also long-term problems in Further Education where engineering and construction are the subjects reporting the highest persistent vacancies.
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