Last month, IMechE published Engineering policy priorities for the 2024-2029 UK parliament, with suggested ‘quick wins’ and long-term strategies in four key policy priority areas: climate change and sustainability; the future of transport and mobility; healthcare and infectious disease control; and education and skills.
Professional Engineering spoke to IMechE’s policy team about some of the policy changes that, if implemented, could help the government ensure a more prosperous and sustainable future.
Health check
Engineers play a vital role in modern healthcare, developing technology and systems that prevent and treat disease. With more government support and targeted funding, they could tackle the UK’s system’s greatest challenges, according to the IMechE report, including cutting NHS waiting list times and improving patient safety.
They could do so by “designing, implementing and maintaining advanced technologies such as image scanning, robotics in surgery and routine equipment,” says public affairs and policy advisor Dr Laura Kent, while also helping the NHS achieve its net zero ambitions.
“For example, the introduction of simple air-cleaning devices such as ultraviolet and high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) devices can not only protect patients from airborne infections, but also cut down on unnecessary stays, boost productivity from fewer staff sick days, and save millions in healthcare costs through the reduction in healthcare-acquired infections.”
Climate extremes
“With some degree of warming already locked in and the frequency and intensity of climate emergencies increasing, planning for climate extremes is crucial to minimise damage, protect communities, and maintain essential services during events like floods and heatwaves,” Dr Kent said.
Relevant engineering considerations include designing “resilient” buildings and infrastructure that can withstand extreme temperatures, increased loads and changing weather patterns, to ensure their long-term safety and functionality.
The report also calls on the government to classify cooling as critical infrastructure. Doing so would enhance public health by helping ensure reliable access to cooling during extreme heatwaves, Dr Kent said, reducing heat-related illnesses and deaths.
“It would also protect essential systems, such as healthcare, data centres, and food, medicine and vaccine supply chains from disruptions caused by overheating, by having robust processes and measures in place to ensure they are adequately prepared.”
Setting the EV agenda
The new IMechE report is a companion piece to a National Engineering Policy Centre’s (NEPC) publication from June, which called on the new government to take a long-term approach to tackling complex issues such as climate change. One of the NEPC’s suggested priorities was committing to a long-term Industrial Strategy, which would grow the economy by “setting out an ambitious vision that draws on the country’s strengths in engineering, innovation, research, and manufacturing”.
One such long-term tactic that could be implemented is a ‘circular economy’ approach to battery electric vehicles (BEVs), as set out in the IMechE report.
“Even though there are promising options in the long term that may be more sustainable, lithium-ion batteries are going to be the backbone of the industry for the foreseeable future. The UK government, working with industry, needs to ensure that the auto sector has a diverse range of supplies of critical materials, including domestic resources of lithium,” said head of policy Matt Rooney to Professional Engineering.
“In the longer term, the UK could set the agenda worldwide for standards in recycling these crucial materials and thereby be a leader in net zero transport. This will involve long-term innovation funding and changes to government oversight of end-of-life recycling to join up responsibility across departments.”
Teaching confidence
Employing about six million people, the engineering sector contributes roughly 32% of the UK’s total economic output. Highly skilled new workers are constantly needed to join the workforce, and will be vital to delivering the targets set out in the report.
Meeting industry’s needs requires starting at school, according to Lydia Amarquaye, IMechE education and skills policy lead. Issues that need to be addressed include a lack of confidence amongst girls in their ability to take the physics A-level despite suitable grades, she said, as revealed by the Science Education Tracker from EngineeringUK and the Royal Society earlier this year.
“If young people are more confident of where they can go with subjects, that could give them the confidence to pick [them],” Amarquaye said. “Real-life examples, real-life situations of what they can see around them and how that pertains to what they're learning, how that pertains to a future career – that would really make a difference.”
A review of the curriculum, as called for in the IMechE report, could help ensure that every young person has the right information and support to consider and pursue an engineering career.
“We want wider participation, making sure that every young person has the right information and the right support,” said Amarquaye. “Whether that is how they're being assessed, whether that is the information that they're being given about apprenticeships alongside universities, alongside T-levels – all of those things should be brought together within this review.”
The Institution is not calling for engineering to be taught as a core subject because it is integrated within the other science subjects, Amarquaye said, but the review should include an assessment of design and technology – which has seen a drop in popularity in recent years – to make it more relevant to pupil’s lives and highlight the engineering opportunities it can open up.
All of those changes should help meet industry’s needs. “We talk about having the right skills to solve net zero,” said Amarquaye. “All of this starts from young people having an understanding of the skills they need to actually do that.”
IMechE will provide evidence to the government alongside other professional engineering institutions, aiming to improve and enhance relevant policies in all relevant areas.
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.