This is Engineering Day

Join us in celebrating This is Engineering Day on 4 November 2020: a nationwide initiative to bring engineering to life for young people and give more people the opportunity to pursue a career that is rewarding, future-shaping and in-demand.

Engineering and technology shape the world around us and play a critical role in addressing some of the greatest global challenges of our age, and yet the UK has a shortage of young people applying for engineering courses and engineering jobs.

The latest available figures from EngineeringUK estimate that there could be a shortfall of up to 59,000 engineering graduates and technicians in the UK each year, while only 12% of the workforce is female and just 9% come from BAME backgrounds.

One of the main barriers to young people pursuing a career in engineering is deeply-rooted cultural perceptions of the profession being mechanical and too technical.

In 2019, the Royal Academy of Engineering in collaboration with EngineeringUK launched the first This is Engineering Day, a nationwide initiative to challenge those misconceptions.

This is Engineering Day will return this year on 4 November 2020. The theme is #BeTheDifference: a celebration of the engineering that shapes our world for the better, whether that is by making our day to day lives easier or tackling global challenges.

The aims of the day are to:

• Show young people what engineers and engineering really look like
• Celebrate the impact they have on the world
• Shift the public perception of engineering and engineers

We want to show young people that engineering is a discipline for everyone that operates at the cutting edge by showcasing some of our research in sustainable transport and energy, artificial intelligence and robotics, medical technology, and urban intelligence.

Head to our Facebook and Twitter accounts on 4 November 2020 for updates.

Please show your support on social media to help celebrate engineers and how they make a difference to our work and in the world by sharing your own achievements using #BeTheDifference and tagging @ThisisEng and @EngineeringCU.

The Royal Academy of Engineering will be hosting online Q&A sessions with engineers, where two engineers will answer students' questions live. Be part of the campaign by joining and sharing details of these events.