Question: How would you help children who want to be engineers but aren't able to?

Charlene Chung answered on 10 Mar 2019:

This is the best question that’s been asked! And it’s also a really tough one!
Well one big reason I wanted to be apart of this competition is that I wanted to be able to have the opportunity to reach people who want to be future engineers but may not have the obvious opportunities to through a variety of reasons.
Even if I do get voted out of this competition, I hope my answers have helped those that I have spoken to see the coolness of engineering.

So here are my thoughts of how I would help children getting into engineering!

1. I would encourage the children who want to be engineers to focus on what they are interested in, and look up into it lots in their spare time. It’s really important to focus on what you enjoy and pursue your interests in that.

2. I would also encourage children to focus on the STEM subjects in school, but remind them that other subjects do make you a well rounded person and helps being an engineer.
In my team at work a lot of people studied geography and the earth sciences subjects, and like me, I studied maths at university, but in school my Standard Grades (Scottish version of GCSE’s) and Highers (Scottish version of A Levels) included English, French and Music as well as Maths and Physics.

3. I’d like to go into schools, but a variety of schools especially in more underprivileged areas, and share the different ways of getting into engineering, and also inspire those who find the STEM subjects hard or haven’t followed them that there other routes!
This can by work experience, school, apprenticeships, university and volunteering in what you’re interested in. For example if you like bicycles and cars, maybe explore aero-mechanical or mechanical engineering or getting some work experience at a local bike shop, or looking an apprenticeship and automotive companies.

4. I would encourage the importance of schools providing after school clubs and events for children to learn more about applied engineering in real life and exercising how fun and practical it is, with experiments, and maybe with the board game I’m thinking of creating if I get voted to win this competition!
I would be active in helping schools promote the involvement of these to children who have a variety of reasons of why they are currently not able to get into it.