Annual Review 2010

Read our objectives of broadening and growing the membership, strengthening links with the membership and membership engagement, intellectual leadership, and developing an awareness of engineering and the profile of the Institution.

In 2010, the members looked to us to support them during challenging economic times; delivering the things that really mattered to them, promoting high-profile education initiatives that will inspire the next generation to work in engineering, getting engineers in the media and being heard by government.

Members feel passionately that we should be an organisation with global reach that truly represents and reflects the profession, and encourages professional registration and long-term career development. We were able to deliver on these requests, achieving significantly against every one of its strategic aims, making 2010 a record-breaking year.

Broadening and growing the membership

We topped the tables of professional engineering bodies, with a significant rise in students becoming associates; a 36% rise in the number of Chartered Engineers; the EngTech community doubling in size; and a 100% increase in the number of Fellow applications. More than 2,000 members based outside the UK joined the Institution.

Strengthening links with the membership and membership engagement

Our volunteers demonstrated their remarkable commitment by organising more than
1,000 events for over 40,000 people around the world to engage members at grassroots. Just under 600 Ambassadors, of all ages, now volunteer to help, advising students and developing engineers, and it was heartening to celebrate their hard work at the inaugural Volunteer Ambassador Conference at Keele.

Intellectual leadership

We are supporting Bloodhound SSC, the high-profile education project
which will promote engineering to young people. Some 90 members have already signed up as volunteers. Of equal importance for members is our commitment to ensuring that the views of engineers are well represented in the public domain, and in 2010 we relaunched Professional Engineering as the voice of engineering for Institution members.

Developing an awareness of engineering and the profile of the Institution

We achieved record-breaking media coverage of £16 million in 2010, nearly trebling the 2009 figure. The change in government meant that we needed to show we understood the needs of new MPs. A well-timed, targeted campaign to brief them on key topics, plus the launch of a new iPhone policy application, meant that we were ranked as the engineering institution MPs were most aware of in an ICM/Dods commissioned poll.