The government has big ambitions to make the UK a green science superpower and achieve Net Zero by 2050. The Spending Review has missed out on the chance to boost career provisions in schools.
To make this a reality, the UK needs many more engineers. This requires a long-term investment in education and skills and a clear STEM education strategy with careers provision at its heart.
The government’s investment in education and skills outlined in the Comprehensive Spending Review is a step in the right direction. However, some of the funding announced to skills in particular is money that has already been committed.
In order to ensure that the UK has the number and quality of engineers to deliver on its ambitions to build back better and greener government must be ambitious and strategic in its approach to education and skills and ensure that more investment is forthcoming for what we consider to be a vital part of education – careers provision.
“We are disappointed to learn that the government has decided to not take forward our call for £40m additional annual funding for careers provision aimed at ensuring schools and colleges are better enabled to deliver meaningful careers provision to their students so they know about the green jobs of the future.
“The need for this additional and targeted funding was identified in our recent report ‘Securing the future: STEM careers provision in schools and colleges in England’ to support the drive to build back better and ’level up’ across the UK in a post-COVID world,” said a spokesperson for EngineeringUK.
