Today, CIHT and 18 other professional engineering institutions will sign up to the Engineering Diversity Concordat committing to address the gender, ethnicity and disability gap affecting the profession.
 
Led by the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Concordat is a voluntary commitment by Professional Engineering Institutions to take action to attract, recruit and retain people from increasingly diverse backgrounds into professional membership and registration.
 
Analysis of those working across professional engineering shows that women make up 51% of the UK population but only 8% of the engineering workforce. As regards ethnicity, while 20% of UK resident graduate engineers are from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, they represent only 6% of the engineering workforce. These figures indicate the potential to address the skills gap of the UK’s industrial sector, which is expected to need 1.28 million science, engineering and technology professionals and technicians by 2020.
 
Professor Dame Wendy Hall DBE FREng FRS, Chair of the Engineering Diversity Concordat said: ‘The ultimate goal of the concordat is to ensure our profession and its institutions continue to thrive both now and in the future. 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.’

 

Chief Executive, Sue Percy said, “As an inclusive Institution that is committed to valuing and respecting the diversity of individuals 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.”

Today’s new signatories bring the number of Professional Engineering Institutions that have signalled their commitment to developing diversity in their membership to 26, out of a total of 36. This represents over 90% of the professional engineering registrant population altogether.