A Model Profession
The Business End, Engineering: A Model Profession
BRW. 03 April 2008
Page 57
THE SHORTAGE OF ENGINEERS IS SO DIRE THAT INDUSTRY BODIES ARE CHASING PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN.
The next crop of engineers with the potential to effectively counteract Australia’s dire skills shortage may not have taken a single high school science class yet. Engineering bodies are trying to find new ways to engage the next generations of engineering talent − including focusing on primary school students.
“One of the issues for our industry has been the move away from what are seen as the ‘hard’ maths and sciences and towards the humanities over a long period of time,” the chief executive of the Association of Consulting Engineers Australia, Megan Motto, says.
“We’d like to see the whole process of that turned around right from the primary school age. We would suggest that the teaching of maths and science needs to be a little more innovative.”
While university graduate numbers have remained relatively stable over the past decade, the demand for private−sector engineering expertise has continued to rise steadily. Motto says that increasing the number of engineers working in Australia under section 457 guest−worker visas and the skilled migration program to bridge this gap is a vital short−term priority, but the most important step will be for Australia to lay the foundation to secure higher graduate numbers in the field over the coming decades.
The Re−Engineering Australia Forum is working to hook primary students on engineering. The group already runs the successful F1 in Schools program, where teenage students design carbon dioxide−powered miniature formula one racing cars. Each year’s competition involves 300,000 Australian teenagers and others from
overseas, and lets them use industry−standard engineering software to design their entries.
REA launched Junior F1 this year as an introduction to F1 in Schools, aiming this time at the imagination of primary−level students. Children from the age of five work with Cosmic Blobs, a three−dimensional design program that allows them to manipulate shapes to design formula one vehicles and place them in virtual environments.
In Junior F1, students are able to see and hold their designs. REA invites children to email their designs for the vehicles and returns a scale model manufactured with the REA’s own prototyping equipment. For most it will be a rare first−hand experience of the connection between the digital design process and a finished product.
Motto agrees that this understanding of the practical aspect of engineering is central to attracting children to the industry. “One of the great benefits of engineering as opposed to most of the other professional services is that you can actually see what you did at the end of the day. You can walk through the door of the building; you can cross over the bridge. It’s a very tangible career.”
The ACEA has already begun its push to demystify engineering as a career to secondary school students, launching the 20−minute Design Your World film on DVD last year to show teenagers what an engineer can produce. “Most kids know what a doctor is, they know what a lawyer is, they even know what a forensic scientist is,
but they still don’t really know what an engineer is,” Motto says. “It’s a great misconception in schools that engineering is about being down a mineshaft, being a train driver.”
At least one copy of the DVD sits in every secondary school in Australia, but Motto says that to succeed in producing more engineers, this kind of education needs to be complemented by initiatives at the primary school level.
ACEA is also keen to redress the reduction in practical science and maths activities in the average Australian primary school. “Ultimately, we’d like to see more experimental learning to get children enthused,” she says. “We’d even like to see more parental involvement in the teaching of science. The same way you have a reading group once a week, we’d like to see parents come in and assist with supervising the kids in experimental learning.”
Motto sees this as vital, and it will be the central theme of the ACEA’s discussion and lobby work with school and parent groups in the second half of this year. “The number one influencer of subject selection and career choice is still parental,” she says.
Motto is satisfied with the response the program is getting from primary school students, but proof of success is at least five to 10 years away. “The response has been really fabulous, but the real test of the matter will be if it translates to subject selection and whether people are taking more science subjects and then going into engineering at university.”
SARAH NEILL
