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ENGINEERING THE ECONOMY EPC Brighton Congress 2005. Peter Williams. The ‘Brave New World’ post 16.3.05. Following the Brown ‘Budget for Science’: Where are we today & what is our natural constituency? What are our goals and ambitions? How can we afford to achieve them? But first……….
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ENGINEERING THE ECONOMYEPC Brighton Congress 2005 Peter Williams
The ‘Brave New World’ post 16.3.05 Following the Brown ‘Budget for Science’: • Where are we today & what is our natural constituency? • What are our goals and ambitions? • How can we afford to achieve them? But first………
So what is ‘engineering’? ….. this? ….or this?
……or this? ……or this?
My problem is that……. ….having spent time building this…… …..to accomplish this….. …….I can’t see the boundaries any more!
So what’s our market? • Can we any longer talk about just E, or S, or T? • And what about M for Mathematics? Has fragmentation had an impact on the following issues……..?
BUT: Financial Times 30th November 2004 ACADEMICS WARN OF FINANCIAL CRISIS THREATENING CHEMISTRY TEACHING IN UNIVERSITIES “As scientists hail the government's success in shoring up research laboratories, they say a new crisis is threatening university science teaching - with chemistry facing the greatest threat.”
……and it’s an international issue : Korea Times, 19th July 2004 “Currently in Korea, the talk of the town is the growing crisis in science and engineering. A sense of urgency is being sharply felt after a survey of 33% of KAIST students said they intended to switch to secure careers, such as medicine, pharmacy and law” Korean Scholastic aptitude test for maths, science and engineering down from43% in 1994 to 27% today
Can we really seek to influence these choices?
What would they think? i.e. isn’t the UK economy the real agenda? *ETB Corporate Partners
ETB report to Treasury April 2004 Follow up report 05/06 ‘SET & City’
But it’s a Changing Landscape: ‘Lombard’, FT, January 2004 : “Creative Capitalist Destruction in Action” Only four* of the FTSE100 ‘Engineers’ survived on 20th anniversary of Index. But SET-related sectors produced £252.3 billion, 27.3% of total UK value added 2002. *BAe, GKN, Rolls Royce + Vodafone (new)
But the Dot Com legacy lives on……….. techMARK FTSE 100 FTSE 250
And even though ‘Tech’ has beaten the rest since 1997…….. We still pay too much in dividends vs. R&D
And…………. UK productivity levels lag behind those of many of leading G8 with output per employed worker around 30% below the US and 15% below France and Germany
However…….. • Policy • Role models & Careers • Cultural barriers If SET is key to future industrial competitiveness, how to tackle issues?
Where do we start? Educational Supply & the young Government SET Community Business needs
Fixing the Problem : Demand for SET Skills RAEng Trade associations HEFCE Business Links Institutions EEF SSC’s RDA’s NESTA DfES Royal Society Cpe LSC CRAC British Association WISE SETNET ETB UUK Supply of SET Skills
South East Asian Model : Demand for SET Skills Government Supply of SET Skills
UK Government role………? • Taxation effects on demand side • Procurement BUT • Key role on supply side, e.g. education • HE funding issues • Teacher supply
The most important role model of all…. But only 10% careers staff have any SET experience
Almost the “Greatest Briton”…… ……….. And half French!!
Michael Faraday : from bookbinder………. …..to foundation of the world’s industries
Role models or… ……………. iconic objects e.g. in the built environment
Ruskin on The Crystal Palace: “The quality and bodily industry which the Crystal Palace expresses is very great. So far it is good. The quantity of thought it expresses is, I suppose, a single and admirable thought …. that it might be possible to build a greenhouse larger than ever greenhouse was built before. This thought and some very ordinary algebra are as much as all that glass can represent of human intellect.”
CP Snow, ‘The Two Cultures’, 1959 “A good many times, I have been present at gatherings of people who, by the standards of the traditional culture, are thought highly educated and who have with considerable gusto been expressing their incredulity at the illiteracy of scientists. Once or twice, I have been provoked and have asked the company how many could describe the second law of thermodynamics. The response was cold; it was also negative.”
Vannevar Bush*: “The impact of science is making a new world, and the engineer is in the forefront of this remaking…He builds great cities, and also builds the means whereby they may be destroyed. Certainly there was never a profession that more truly needed the professional spirit, if the welfare of man is to be preserved” *1945 report ‘Science – the Endless Frontier’ set vision for NSF
The end Product : SET ‘Captains of Industry’ and their skills base