Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to raise awareness of engineering as a career among secondary school pupils.

To ensure young people have the skills needed for jobs in engineering we are investing in programmes to increase the take-up of mathematics, by incentivising schools using the recently launched advanced mathematics premium. We are also supporting better teaching of mathematics, physics and computing in schools, including a new £84 million programme to improve computing teaching.

We are improving careers advice in schools – including ensuring that pupils are exposed to science, technology, engineering and mathematics jobs. These encounters with employers and apprenticeships are now built into school career programmes since we have updated the school and college statutory guidance.

Engineering and all it brings is at the heart of economic success and provides exciting opportunities of fulfilling careers. This year we are running a cross-government, national campaign - the ‘Year of Engineering’ – which aims to raise the profile of engineering among 7 to 16 year olds and widening the pool of young people that consider engineering as a career.