The UK’s engineering sector could learn from other countries on promoting itself to more people as a career, Will Serle, HRD at Amec Foster Wheeler has said.
He added that countries such as India and China are leading the way on diversity.
“My best friend studied engineering at university, and seven people out of 100 were female. That’s bad enough in 1987, but my friend’s son recently started the same course and out of 120 people 10 are female,” he reported.
He said the sector needs to ask “‘what’s happening here?’ Is it women’s expectations or the fact they’ve got better role models in India for example?”
He added that engineering must be ready to utilise global graduates: “Resources coming out of those countries are going to be critical. We’ve got to be ready for this – we can’t just think of ourselves as a British company.”
Check back next week for an interview with Serle
