• Question: Do you think that people only think of engineering as building and not as a job that involves maths and science?

    Asked by Caitlin J. to Matthew, Neil, Paula, Pete, Philippa on 12 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Pete Symons

      Pete Symons answered on 12 Mar 2015:

      Hi Caitlin,

      I think that there is still some educating to do with engineering, in the past an engineer might have been the person that fixed your dads car, or as you said a building engineer, but schemes like this one and STEM outreach programmes are a really great way of getting ‘real life’ engineers in front of kids to talk of all the different types of engineer and how you might be interested in getting into it.

      I certainly didn’t have STEM outreach programmes at your age I never even really knew about the different types of engineering you could go into.

    • Photo: Philippa Jefferis

      Philippa Jefferis answered on 15 Mar 2015:

      I think some people do – especially one person who once asked me if I was a bit small to be an engineer! It is a shame, as I think we are missing out on getting some people to consider a career in engineering as they misunderstand what the job is.

    • Photo: Neil Taylor

      Neil Taylor answered on 16 Mar 2015:

      Hi!

      I think you’re right – engineering currently does have some stereotypes associated with it! These include a man in a boiler suit working on a car, or a man on a building site looking up at a building (as you say in your example!).

      While these images do capture a small snapshot of engineering, we need to encourage a wider range of engineering associations to communicate the diversity that the industry really has – which includes roles that deal with lots of maths and science.

      Hope this helps!

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