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IET comments on Scottish exam results

Published: Tue 9 Aug 2022

David Lakin, IET Head of Education & Safeguarding, said: “Congratulations to all those receiving their exam results today in Scotland. Students have done extremely well given the disruption faced over the last two years and as the first time they have taken exams since the start of the pandemic.

“Comparing to the last time exams were taken, it is positive to see the increase in results across Maths and the Sciences, which are key engineering gateway subjects. However, it’s important to harness students’ creativity and young people should be encouraged to study creative and practical subjects such as Design Technology and the Arts.

“It’s crucial that we ensure young people have access to subjects that cover the entirety of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) education from an early age – quite simply if we do not tackle the engineering skills shortage now, we are not going to have enough engineers in the future to solve large scale societal challenges.

“Last Autumn we sent a letter to Boris Johnson with over 150 world-leading engineers, STEM ambassadors, professional institutions, and celebrities to urge the Government to help tackle the UK’s engineering skills shortage by embedding engineering into current learning and support #EngineeringKidsFutures.

“We’ve moved forward with this work having already held a series of roundtables with stakeholders to understand how engineering can be better embedded into the primary school and secondary curriculum without additional pressure being placed on teaching staff.

We’ll be hosting a Scotland-specific roundtable on Thursday 18th August.

“We want all young people to thrive and have the choice of the full range of learning options whether that be at university or an apprenticeship. There are many different routes into a career in engineering so no matter what results students receive today, there are lots of options to suit them.”

For more information about a career in engineering, please visit https://education.theiet.org/secondary/careers/.

ENDS

Notes to Editor

About the IET

  • We inspire, inform and influence the global engineering community to engineer a better world.
  • We are a diverse home for engineering and technology intelligence throughout the world. This breadth and depth mean we are uniquely placed to help the sector progress society.
  • We want to build the profile of engineering and technology to change outdated perceptions and tackle the skills gap. This includes encouraging more women to become engineers and growing the number of engineering apprentices.
  • Interview opportunities are available with our spokespeople from a range of engineering and technology disciplines including cyber-security, energy, engineering skills, innovation, manufacturing, technology, transport and diversity in engineering.
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Media enquiries to:

Rebecca Gillick
External Communications Manager
E: rgillick@theiet.org