The University of the West of England (UWE) has officially opened its new School of Engineering building with a commitment to help increase the number of women and people from underrepresented groups working in the sector.
The multi-million pound facility at the institution’s Frenchay campus in Bristol has enabled it to expand its cohort of students to 1,600, with a view to addressing a rise in demand for skilled engineers in the region, particularly within aerospace.
The new building will boost UWE Bristol’s partnerships and working agreements with engineering giants in the area, including supplying degree apprentices for Airbus and Rolls-Royce in Filton.
It will also enable the university to expand its technology and knowledge base support to firms, which it currently does with facilitates such as the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, also located on its Frenchay campus.
Set over four floors and 8,500 mt sq, the new school will feature teaching studios, modelling and simulation suites, laboratories, specialist workshops and student learning zones accommodating a wide range of engineering disciplines such as composite manufacturing, machining and metrology.
During a tour of the facility, BusinessLive also saw how it utilises digital technology, including engine test cells, driving and flight simulators, a virtual and augmented reality design studio, and "smart factory" testing facilities.
With the opening of the building, which also sees the introduction of a new, more vocational curriculum, UWE Bristol has announced its intentions to enrol more students with neurodiversity, or those who benefit from different learning approaches.
The university has also set a target to double its number of female engineering students, in response to calls from firms within the industry to increase diversity in its workforce.
Most Read
According to figures published on the Royal Academy of Engineering website, 8% of professional engineers in the 海角视频 are female, the lowest proportion in Europe, while 6% come from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.
Wiltshire-based Dyson and Rolls Royce were among six large firms in the region to attend a jobs fair in Bristol in October that was hoping to encourage people from underrepresented backgrounds to consider a career in engineering.
Professor Lisa Brodie, head of the department of engineering design and mathematics at UWE Bristol, told BusinessLive the low percentage of women and neurodiversity engineers in the 海角视频 was “a symptom” of the entire education system.
Professor Brodie said that people from neurodiversity backgrounds who may consider engineering as a profession were “prevented from progressing” as examinations did not allow them to demonstrate their skills.
She added the many girls in primary and secondary schools would perceive engineering “as not for them”, with many perceiving subjects such as physics as “masculine.”
One of the measures UWE Bristol’s engineering school has introduced to address the imbalance, is to not stipulate physics as a required A-level subject for applicants, with many more girls studying maths at A-level, as opposed to both subjects.
It is also aiming to help attract a broader range of engineers by sparking interest among younger age groups, with schoolchildren as young as five to be invited to visit the new building’s ‘Prototype and Play Lab’ to participate in inspiring engineering outreach activities.
Don’t miss
Professor Brodie said a greater emphasis on how engineering was helping to tackle global issues such climate change was needed within education to help entice more young women into the profession, as opposed to promoting “hard engineering, cars and racing.”
Professor Brodie said while there were slowly increasing numbers of women within engineering, the industry had still not come “far enough” since she graduated.
Professor Brodie said: “All businesses are looking for a more diverse workforce, particularly in the engineering sector. The reason for that is, if you keep having the same lens on the world from the same type of engineer, and we do have a lot of white, middle class engineers, you will see one lens of the world and one set of solutions.
“By embracing different backgrounds, cultures, religions and types of neurological processing, you’re going to get very different solutions to the problems we have.
“Industry is crying out for that diversity, through this facility we are able to encourage a very different style of learning and a different type of person into engineering, and ultimately into the engineering workforce.”
Professor Brodie said the engineering school was in discussions with GKN about the possibility of setting up a pilot placement scheme for student engineers with autism at the firm’s new global technology centre in Filton.
UWE Bristol’s new engineering school was completed last year following work from contractors BAM, architects AHR and project manager Capita. The building’s sustainable design was recognised with the project of the year award at the British Construction Industry Awards.
Since the facility fully opened this academic year, Professor Brodie said the feedback from students and families at open days had been “brilliant”.
Like this story? Why not sign up to get the latest South West business news straight to your inbox.