Greater action is promised by the engineering community to attract, recruit and retain people from across all sections of society. Nineteen professional institutions, including CIHT, signed up to the Engineering Diversity Concordat last Thursday, bringing the total to 26 representing over 90% of the professional engineering registrant population.

The Concordat commits those involved to help ensure more women, people with a disability and individuals from black and minority ethnic backgrounds become involved in the industry.

The initiative is led by the Royal Academy of Engineering which says that women make up 51% of the UK population but only 8% of the country's engineering workforce. It adds that 20% of graduate engineers resident in the UK are from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, but they only represent 6% of the engineering workforce.

Recruiting more people from all sections of society could help to address the skills gap in UK industry, according to the Royal Academy. Over one and a quarter million new science, engineering and technology professionals will be needed, it says, by 2020.

Chair of the Engineering Diversity Concordat, Professor Dame Wendy Hall said: "The ultimate goal of the concordat is to ensure our profession and its institutions continue to thrive. To do this, each and every one of us must play a part in attracting and retaining engineers from increasingly diverse backgrounds into professional membership and registration."

CIHT Chief Executive Sue Percy said: "We are very pleased to support this great initiative. We encourage and support people of all ages and backgrounds to join both CIHT and the engineering profession."

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