Question: Not a lot of kids would want to do engineering in their future what would you do to change that

Mark Catherall answered on 17 Nov 2016:

Well, we first have to find out why that’s the case. Also, it’s not necessarily a bad thing that ‘not a lot of kids’ want to be engineers, as long as the ones who’d make the best engineers still want to become engineers. It would be a waste if a kid who was great a music or history or whatever ended up becoming a mediocre engineer instead! Assuming that this is the problem you’re getting at, then I think it would help a lot if we focussed more attention on the awesome feats achieved by engineers and the amazing effect it’s had on the everyday lives of everyone. At the moment the figures that are revered in popular culture are the pop-stars and the talent-show winners – the idea that success means winning a contest and getting handed a load of money and fame by someone else is very detrimental to the aspiration of future generations to work hard and build something valuable.