Where are all the engineers?

I have to admit that I’m a bit of a newbie to engineering engagement. Like many of us in the engagement business I’ve come from a background of science communication, and at first I assumed that engineering engagement would be more or less the same just with a different subject area.

But I’ve found that this is not quite true. While today public engagement seems to be fairly well embedded in science, this is taking longer to develop in the engineering community. But why is this the case?

Feedback from some of our past Ingenious projects suggests that the impetus for engineers to take part in engagement activities most often comes from the individual rather than the company. But on the whole engineers don’t realise the importance of public engagement or rate it very highly compared to their science counterparts. This means that engineers and, more specifically, those in management positions, are less likely to release staff for public engagement activities.

A lot of effort has gone into changing this view in academia, thanks to the Beacons and a host of other initiatives and schemes. But the majority of engineers work in industry, not academia. Last year the Academy released a report with the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills into the specific motivations, rewards and barriers to public engagement in STEM businesses. I won’t go into the minutia right now (you can read the full report here) but the bottom line is that for public engagement to be taken up by the business community, engagement goals must align with the business goals of the company. This could mean engagement falling under a business’ corporate social responsibility or recruitment activities for example. However it also means that transferring what we’ve learnt about public engagement in academia to those working in industry isn’t exactly straightforward.

Managers will be more likely to release their staff for engagement if they can see a tangible benefit for their company, whether it’s increasing awareness of their brand or improving relations with the local community. Carrying out engagement activities and training outside of work hours and being as flexible as possible is also a definite plus when it comes to recruiting engineers into engagement.

But the lack of engineers isn’t all down to the academia-industry divide. Negative views are found in both academia and industry, so perhaps it’s a matter of branding? Many engagement and communication activities, such as FameLab or the British Science Association Media Fellowships, are open to both engineers and scientists but attract far fewer engineers than scientists. Both of these schemes explicitly welcome engineers but perhaps FameLab’s slogan of ‘Talking science’ or the British Science Association name, unintentionally discourage engineers from applying?

An argument could be made for running separate events especially for engineers – last year the British Science Association ran a strand of the Media Fellowship especially for engineers, and the very first I’m an Engineer Get Me Out of Here (sister to I’m a Scientist Get Me Out of Here) has just finished. However a number of activities successfully integrate science and engineering engagement without doing this. Bright Club, not only mixes science with engineering but also showcases the arts and humanities alongside STEM researchers. The Big Bang Fair is also heavy on the engineering content from both academia and industry, which it features alongside science research and activities. There are pros and cons with both approaches, but as a lot of science and engineering work overlaps, it doesn’t always make sense to split activities along discipline lines.

While engineering engagement still has a way to go before it catches up with engagement in science there are signs that it’s moving in the right direction. More and more public engagement practitioners are actively incorporating engineering into their activities, and we’re also receiving more applications from engineers and engineering companies who would like to develop activities themselves. While recruiting engineers still remains a problem, some of the schemes Ingenious has funded have been oversubscribed with engineers thanks to the training and opportunities they offer, and the flexibility they give to those fitting in engagement around a regular workload.  Some of the engineers who have taken part in Ingenious projects have told us that it’s even helped contribute towards attaining their chartered status. It’s taking time but the attitude towards public engagement is slowly changing. The question is how can we keep this momentum going?