• Question: Why is it so crucial for people of my age, to want to be/become engineers?

    Asked by alixlangford to Alex, Claire, Kate, Marcus, Neil on 20 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by erhpls123.
    • Photo: Marcus Johns

      Marcus Johns answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      Engineers essentially make the world that we live in go round, without them much of what we have and use would not exist. They are essential for ensuring that ideas and products are scaled up such that everyone in the world can benefit from them. Obviously, people who are currently engineers aren’t going to be around forever, so we need younger people to become engineers and bring new ideas to the profession. At the moment there aren’t enough engineers in the UK to fill the demand by companies based here. Without more engineers being trained these companies will either go elsewhere to find engineers – taking their business out of the country – or won’t be able to achieve their ideas, some of which could be life-changing.

    • Photo: Alex Lyness

      Alex Lyness answered on 21 Jun 2014:

      Hey alixlangford,

      It’s crucial for people of any age to become engineers. One of the reasons that this event is so focussed on kids is that engineering is not a subject taught at school. It requires all different skills from across maths, sciences and technology and too often is it confused with just fixing cars!

      As you can see from the engineers all across this site, from all different zones, there are loads of areas where engineers are needed to build, fix and improve products, processes, food stuffs, infrastructure, roads and beyond! Some of us in the Health Zone are even trying to fix people.

      I applied and went to Uni, only then did I find out that people thought it was ‘uncool’ to be an engineer! I didn’t care because it involved everything that I wanted to do as a career. We need help more and more kids realise the potential as engineers as if they knew what we can do with all our skills it would soon make them realise that engineers can be very cool!

      As Marcus said, there is due to be a shortage in qualified engineers in the future because not enough people have opted for it at after school. Hopefully, things like IAEGMOOH will help nudge a few more kids into the pipeline and they can go on to have a rewarding and exciting careers in the field.

    • Photo: Kate Niehaus

      Kate Niehaus answered on 21 Jun 2014:

      It is really important to have engineers because our lives today rely so heavily on engineering. Cars, bikes, computers, phones, medical products, and often the work behind websites, apps, etc. Nearly any company you can think of requires engineers in some way or another. So, in order to continue to make these things and to further improve them, we really need engineers!

      That being said, engineering is not for everyone, but if what we’ve said sounds interesting, then you should definitely think about it!

    • Photo: Claire Brockett

      Claire Brockett answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      The other engineers have answered this so well!
      Everything we rely on in our daily lives depends on engineering, and its critical to society that engineers continue to train and contribute to our future.
      It is not taught specifically at school so events like this are important to increase awareness of engineering.
      In the UK we don’t have enough people training to be engineers so its important that young people consider it as a career – as Kate said its not for everyone but if you’ve liked anything the engineers here do, then definitely consider it as a career 🙂

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