Attracting talented, skilled people is a problem faced by many industries, including utilities.
The changing energy landscape requires a strong pipeline of talent, while a shortage of skilled workers and a lack of training opportunities could put the sector’s competitiveness and capability at risk.
It is therefore vital that we work together to understand future growth, jobs and the associated skills requirements – and communicate them in a way that will attract young people and those with transferable skills.
We will not solve the problem overnight, but at Siemens, we are convinced that young British people have the raw talent and ability to succeed in the modern global workplace and we are determined to will play our part in helping them do so.
Science and technology is at the heart of everything Siemens does and everything that makes it competitive. We all know there is an urgent need to get more young people interested in Stem (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects and we are active in this area.
But like good engineers we are always looking for continuous improvement, and this is why we recently launched the Curiosity Project. It’s designed to proactively reach out to young people – and those that influence their decision making – and to unlock their inquisitiveness.
The Curiosity Project aims to reach more than five million young people within a three-year framework. It will give them a greater knowledge of the opportunities created by Stem subjects and the exciting career prospects engineering delivers.
Via the Curiosity Project, Siemens will support five major science-related festivals in the UK, each with a clear ambition to reach out to parents, teachers and students to make the world of science available in a fun and engaging way.
The project also supports The Prince’s Teaching Institute Residential for Mathematics and Science, which will help heads of departments from state secondary schools across the country access up-to-date knowledge, resources and ideas so they can deliver truly inspiring lessons.
Furthermore, the project will incorporate a sponsorship of the International Images for Science photography competition and touring exhibition run by the Royal Photographic Society. This will showcase in an immersive, visual manner, the fascinating detail and scale of science and engineering in application.
As the project rolls out, we intend to conduct a research programme to quantify the impact that business engagement with parents, schools and teachers can have on the understanding a young person displays about Stem careers. We’ll also increase Siemens’ free online engineering education resources, launched in 2013, as part of this project. These resources are aimed at the UK’s 21,000 primary and 5,000 secondary schools and have already been rolled out to 5,000 schools. We aim to reach 4.5 million pupils by 2016 through this channel.
I’m extremely proud that Siemens is engaging young students, teachers and parents all across the UK, both in and out the classroom. I am confident that Siemens, and our partners in this area, can make a significant difference, and via our research, we intend to prove it.