Attracting more students to study engineering in Cork down to changing perceptions of industry

Damien Owens, director general of Engineers Ireland, told The Corkman that attracting more people, particularly females, to the industry is vital to address the estimated shortage of about 6,000 engineers in Ireland.

Changing ideas that people may have about engineering is how Damien's organisation is hoping to widen the appeal of the sector.

"A lot of people perceive engineering as purely construction and difficult work but nothing could be further from the truth," Damien said.

"Even in the construction sector now you'd have the construction bits done on a computer. Your design and setting everything out is all done in a clean office, it's not done on a building site.

"Construction is a small part of [engineering]. At the Ploughing Championships we had a number of exhibits in robotics for example, and that could be drones, it could be a robot dog that goes into buildings, scans it and takes measurements and gives you 3D planning image of it or goes into a buildings that have been on fire to see if it's safe for humans to go in."

Biomedical engineering is also a "huge part" of the domestic industry, with companies like Boston Scientific and Stryker operating in Cork.

Damien said the biomedical sector also has a gender balance which his organisation is trying to achieve in other strands of engineering.

"It's a slow burn trying to change attitudes, change perceptions. There's research from the UK that shows that in kids, the formation phase where they decide what they'd like to do is actually very early on, between eight and ten their perceptions are forming," he explained.

"That's where we need to change the perceptions so that engineering is viewed as a career for everyone to get more females interested in it."

Recent data provided to Engineers Ireland from the Higher Executive Authority shows that attitudes may be changing, with Cork colleges MTU and UCC seeing a consistent increase in the amount of engineering students who are female since 2015/16. In MTU, there were 415 female engineering students in 2015/16 while there was 775 in 2022/23. In UCC, there was 410 in 2015/16 and 640 in 2022/23.

Damien said third-level engineering courses becoming "more responsive" is one reason why more people are signing up to study the subject. Since 2015, engineering schools in MTU, UCC and other colleges have introduced a 'common first year', allowing students to get a flavour of different types of engineering before they commit to the strand which interests them most.

"When you are sitting back in school it's very difficult to understand the different types of opportunities there. At college, they can see what appeals to them most. From talking to lecturers in the college, they say that if you ask students day one what type of engineering do you want to do about, 40 per cent will still go on to do that whereas the other 60 per cent can change their mind," Damien said.

"That's a very positive thing if you help people to go where they are interested."

Engineers Ireland initiatives at school level have also played a part in creating interest in engineering. The STEPS programme holds events and competitions for primary school children while the popular 'Engineering Your Future' programme allows transition year students to get a taste of what studying and working in engineering is like.

"Fifty per cent of people who take part in that programme go on to do a STEM subject," Damien said.

Engineers Ireland also works with the Girl Guides to offer engineering-related merit badges to try and attract more females to the industry. Damien said many engineers are currently coming to work in Ireland from countries like India and Brazil, and amongst this contingent there is a 50/50 split between men and women. This indicates that Ireland can also achieve this.

"Other countries have tackled this gender balance so we can too. But we have to start early to change perceptions in the primary schools, educating parents, career guidance," he said.

"Engineering is more than one career, it gives you the skills to cope and change careers throughout your life. The tech is always evolving and every day is a new day.

"You can travel the world with it. Just as engineers come here, we have Irish engineers working on really significant projects overseas.

"It's a career that opens up the world and it gives you great satisfaction and mobility."