The Engineering Council has this week highlighted the important role professional registration plays in recognising competence, commitment and professionalism across the engineering profession.
The move coincided with ‘National Engineering Day’, the awareness-raising event that took place on Wednesday (4 November).
At the same time, the STEM champion EngineeringUK has celebrated its silver anniversary, but warned more still needs to be done to promote diversity and inclusion within engineering, especially to attract more women to the profession.
National Engineering Day day is designed to celebrate the creativity, innovation and impact of engineering, while inspiring the next generation to explore engineering careers and pursue their professional ambitions.
“From apprentices and graduates to experienced professionals, today’s engineering workforce reflects the broad range of backgrounds, experiences and opportunities found across the profession,” the council said.
“While there is no single route into engineering, professional registration provides a shared benchmark of professional standards, recognising engineers and technicians who have demonstrated their competence and commitment to ethical practice,” it added.
It also highlighted that, through registration as Chartered Engineer (CEng), Incorporated Engineer (IEng), Engineering Technician (EngTech), or Information and Communication Technology Technician (ICTTech), engineers and technicians “demonstrate the professional standards and ethical practice that help build public confidence in the profession”.
Separately, the not-for-profit STEM body EngineeringUK has this week celebrated its 25th anniversary, highlighting that it has now reached almost three million young people through its activities and resources.
The organisation said it had now worked in partnership with more than 1,000 organisations and published 150 pieces of research.
“We’ve helped improve understanding of engineering and technology and its contribution to society and the economy. And we’ve shown a generation where engineering and technology careers could take them,” it added.
According to its latest data, this work is being shown through the growth in the uptake of STEM subjects since 2001.
STEM subjects now accounted for 45% of all A level entries, up from 33% in 2001. Maths has increased its share of all A Level entries from 8.8% in 2001 to around 12.7% in 2026. Biology, chemistry and physics also account for a greater collective share of entries, increasing from 16.3% to 20.4%.
Over the same period the number of engineering and technology undergraduate degree entries has grown from 108, 455 to 172,375. And engineering and technology-related apprenticeships have doubled since 2002, with the latest data showing 102,280 starts for 2024/25.
“Engineering and technology continues to play a vital role in the UK economy. There are 6.3 million people working in engineering and technology roles – that’s around 1 in 5 of the workforce,” EngineeringUK said.
However, there was still a job to do, especially regarding gender. The proportion of girls doing maths at A Level is unchanged since 2001 at 37%, it pointed out.
Physics had seen just a small increase in entries by girls – from 22% to 24%. In 2010, women made up only 10% of the UK’s engineering and technology workforce and the pace of change has been slow. “Women remain significantly under-represented today at just 17% of the workforce,” it added.
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